Final Destruction
by heyheytvd
Summary: Separated by the outbreak of an apocalyptic-level zombie virus, Klaus and Caroline must find their way back to one another and somehow keep themselves and their friends alive along the way. But will they lose themselves in the process? Zombie apocalypse Klaroline AH/AU, tons of flashbacks, tons of fluff, tons of angst. So basically all things good.
1. Chapter 1 - Find My Way

Chapter 1 – Find My Way

**A/N: Hi guys! So this is my first ever fanfiction and it's been racking around my brain for months now so I** **just had to get it out. The setup is a lot of back and forth between flashbacks and the present since** **we're in a post-apocalyptic world and I think that it will make things more interesting, the flashbacks are** **in italics by the way. It is 100% Klaroline and is super angsty, but don't worry there will be tons of fluff in the flashbacks. **

**Page breaks are symbolized by the hashtags, and I'm usually pretty uptight about my spelling and grammar, but if you see a mistake PLEASE point it out to** **me. Reads and reviews are of course always appreciated. Okay this was too long of an author's note, off to the story! Enjoy!**

**#######**

_"__You've got to be kidding me, right?" _

_"__Kidding about what, love?" He asked, that smug smile still on his stupidly attractive face._

_She rolled her eyes, barking out a sarcastic laugh as she turned her body back towards him and put her hand on her hip, the skirt of her white dress twirling in the process, making her look like some sort of sassy angel._

_"__Is this how you hit on all the girls? Get them to embarrass themselves then use the whole 'a beautiful girl like you must have a beautiful name' line? Well guess what, that won't work on me mister, I'm too smart for that load of crap."_

_He stared for a minute, the smirk never leaving his face before he burst out laughing, eyes twinkling bright. She couldn't help but stare at the man. He may have embarrassed her profusely and he had an annoying arrogance about him, but in that moment he was just a stunning man that was for some reason intrigued in her._

_"__Alright, alright, I apologize, love." He finally said, still smiling at her. "It appears that I mistakenly mistook you for someone that could easily be fooled by my charm. It will never happen again, I promise."_

_She paused for a moment. "Well good." She finally said, turning again to lean her forearms against the balcony railing. A few seconds passed and he followed suit, their arms brushing, sending a bolt of electricity against her skin._

_"__But I'd still like to know." He murmured after a moment of the two of them just watching the people dancing below. "Your name, that is. If you'd allow me the honor."_

_She chuckled, ducking her head and looking at him from under a few strands of hair. He was already looking at her intensely, his gaze never faltering._

_"__Caroline." She finally whispered. "My name is Caroline."_

_Klaus smiled widely, all of his teeth showing. "Caroline." He said slowly, tasting the name on his tongue. She couldn't help but shiver at the way he made her name sound like a prayer. "I quite like that name. Caroline."_

#######

"Caroline. Caroline! Hey, Caroline!"

She woke with a start, sitting up and pulling her knife out of its sheath on her pants leg within seconds, immediately scanning her surroundings for any Infected. Her eyes were wild, she looked manic.

"Woah, woah, easy!" Katherine shouted, scrambling away from her skittish friend and holding her hands up to show she was a friendly. "It's just me, Caroline, it's Katherine. Look around you, look at where you are." She said slowly but firmly, bringing Caroline back to the present.

Caroline gasped for breath, still holding the knife handle tightly in her fist as she looked around, blonde hair whipping around her dirt smeared face. She looked to her right first, where Katherine was crouched beside her, hands up and a concerned look on her heart shaped face framed with curly brown hair. Katherine. Katherine is her friend, Katherine is not an Infected, Katherine is here right now.

Looking past Katherine, Caroline saw three figures sitting around a small fire where they were cooking something in a pot. Beans, probably. The first figure she focuses on is tall, with dark hair, a strong jawline, and leaned against someone who looks like Katherine. Damon, that's Damon, her friend. The Katherine lookalike is Elena, Katherine's twin sister. She's known Elena since she was six years old, she does not have to be afraid of Elena. The third figure is Alaric, he is stirring the beans. Alaric would never hurt her, Alaric is her friend. None of them are an Infected, they are all here right now.

Jerking her head to the left when she hears loud laughter, Caroline's fist tightens on the knife so much it hurts her knuckles.

"Relax," Katherine says calmly, edging towards her friend, "It's just Kol being Kol."

Kol. Caroline sees Kol, he is throwing a stick at Bonnie and laughing loudly. Bonnie, Kol's girlfriend. Bonnie and Kol are her friends, they are not an Infected.

"You with me, Care?" Katherine asks after a few seconds when Caroline does not let go of the iron grip on her weapon of choice. "Caroline, come back. We're all right here, you're safe."

Caroline stares up at Katherine for about three seconds before she finally relaxes, releasing her knife and letting out a deep breath as she puts it back in its sheath.

Katherine let out the breath she had been holding too, sitting on the ground beside Caroline.

"Jesus Caroline, I thought you were gonna throat stab me there for a second." Her friend grumbled, wiping off the dirt from her hands on her jeans leg. Which is futile, because her jeans are just as dirty.

"Oh shutup, you know I wouldn't do that." Caroline murmured, running her hands through her grimy hair and resting her elbows on her drawn up knees, taking deep breaths to calm down. "I just…"

"Had to be brought back to the present?" Katherine finished for her rudely. Caroline glared at her. "Hey, don't look at me like that, everyone knows it's true. You space out, go somewhere else, and then get this crazy look in your eyes like we're all an Infected and you have to slit our throats."

Caroline sighed heavily, pulling out some dead grass from the ground. "I would never hurt any of you guys." She said quietly.

"I know that, Care, we all know that." Katherine said. "At least not in your right mind. But when you space out like that, there's no telling what you could do. You've got to get over this thing of yours Caroline." She said firmly, taking Caroline's chin and turning it towards her, a fierce look in her deep brown eyes. "We need you to be on top of your game. If any of us isn't focused enough, it could mean we die."

"I know, Katherine." Caroline snapped, jerking her chin out of her friend's hold and glaring before looking back down. The permanent blood stains on her brown combat boots caught her eye.

"Look," Katherine said in a much softer tone after a few tense seconds. "I miss them too."

Caroline sucked in a breath at the flash of pain that radiated across her chest as Katherine mentioned _them_.

"I think about Elijah every single day." She continued. "I wonder if he's alive, if he's an Infected, if he's looking for me. And it hurts, Caroline. He's my husband for God's sake, and we only got to be married for two months before The Outbreak and now I don't know if I'll ever even see him again."

Caroline ached for her childhood friend who was actually showing emotion for once. Ever since The Outbreak, when everyone was separated with no way to contact one another, Katherine had become fiercer than usual. She never talked about Elijah, which was fine with Caroline because it kept her from thinking about _him_. Katherine simply focused on survival. And that's what she was: a survivor.

But now Katherine was talking about the one thing that hurt her the most because Caroline was slowly losing it, and she knew it too. It had been eight months since The Outbreak and they had no idea if they were any closer to getting back to New York, or even if their loved ones were even still _in_ New York. They were currently somewhere in Indiana, the journey from Chicago taking so long since they had to stop every night and hide from the Infected when they came out to play. Daylight was the only safe time to travel, when the Infected were hiding from the sun.

"Look," Katherine started again, "All I'm trying to say is that you're one of our best fighters Care." She said sincerely, taking Caroline's hand in her own. "And we need you, all of us do. You've saved each one of us from becoming a raging, murderous, skin-peeling-off, red eyed zombie multiple times."

Caroline couldn't help but chuckle at that, turning to look at her friend. "You forgot cannibalistic."

"Oh of course!" Katherine shouted sarcastically. "How could I ever forget cannibalistic?"

Caroline laughed even harder at that, shaking her head. Katherine had a way of doing that, making her laugh when she just wanted to scream, or cry.

"So get it together." Katherine said quietly after they finally stopped laughing. Caroline looked at her friend, noting the bags under her eyes, the dirt smear on her forehead, the cut on her chin from where she fell a few days ago running from an Infected whose head was eventually cut off by Katherine and Elena's brother Jeremy. "We need you. And our boys need us too."

Caroline closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Don't, Katherine, don't go there."

"I will go there, okay? The only way we're going to make it to Klaus and Elijah is if-"

"Don't say his name, Katherine!" Caroline begged, eyes wide and crazy. "I can't hear it okay, it hurts too much. You yourself just said that you don't even know if Elijah is alive or an Infected or what! So why bother?"

"Because we have to have hope." Katherine said firmly, lips pursed. "I have to believe that my husband is looking for me just as hard as I'm looking for him. And you have to believe that about Klaus too."

Caroline didn't speak for a few seconds. She listened to the sounds of the camp they had briefly set up before they had to move again to avoid the Infected at night. Damon was saying something snarky to Alaric and Elena laughed. Kol was climbing a tree and Bonnie was scolding him for it. Jeremy was sharpening his new sword that he stole from an abandoned pawn shop a few days ago. And Katherine was sitting beside her on the ground, the both of them with hearts heavy over the men they loved, the Mikaelson brothers who had taken their broken pieces and put them back together.

And neither of the girls knew if they would ever see them alive again.

#######

_"__Now Stefan tell me, who is that lovely creature in the white dress?" Niklaus Mikaelson asked his business partner Stefan Salvatore as they both got their Bourbons from the bartender._

_"__Who?" Stefan asked, looking in the direction Klaus was gazing. "Oh, no, no, no." He shook his head, throwing back his drink. "You don't get to talk to her, just stay away from that one."_

_"__Excuse me?" Klaus asked indignantly. "I'm your boss, you don't get to tell me what ladies I can and cannot accost."_

_"__Okay first of all," Stefan said, "No one says accost anymore. Second of all, you're not my boss, you stole me away from my brother's law firm to be your partner, remember? And thirdly, I _will_ tell you not to mess with that girl." He pointed his glass at the blonde beauty Klaus had been eyeing for the last five minutes, leaned against the balcony railing and staring down at the people dancing below with a rather venomous gaze. "She's a friend of mine, and trust me, she's not your type."_

_"__Oh and what's my type?" Klaus asked with a roll of his eyes._

_"__Oh I don't know, stupid, fake breasts, runway model, doesn't stay for breakfast, that type."_

_Klaus scoffed, looking back at the mystery girl. She was downright stunning, her modest white dress accentuating her curves, high heels showing off those long, sinful legs. He hadn't got a glimpse of her eyes but he would guess that they were blue to go with her fair skin and wavy blonde hair. She was absolutely divine, breathtaking even. And he wanted to talk to her._

_"__Alright, let me put it this way," Stefan spoke, pulling Klaus away from his thoughts, "I organized this Christmas party for all of our clients, I pulled it all together myself with no help from you. So I am asking you politely to please not hit on _my_ guest who is very dear to me. Got it?"_

_Before Klaus could respond, Damon Salvatore sauntered up behind his brother, putting his hands on Stefan's shoulders roughly._

_"__Stefan! So glad I could find you, quick question, why didn't you tell me that Lexi would be here?"_

_Stefan rolled his eyes, turning to look at his brother, eyebrows furrowing at his unstraightened black tie. _

_"__Because, Damon, I didn't think I had to. Lexi's my friend, and just because you broke her heart and made her hate you five years ago doesn't mean I'm not going to ask her to come to my business's Christmas party."_

_Damon wrinkled his nose. "Yeah okay, whatever Mr. Holier Than Thou. But you see, your 'best bud' has taken it upon herself to try and be friends with Elena, and I'd rather the love of my life not hear even more about my not so fresh past if you catch my drift."_

_As the brothers continued their bickering, Klaus downed the rest of his drink and very quietly slipped away from the bar and towards the balcony where the blonde beauty was still standing. His eyes travelled over her slight yet curvy frame as he approached her._

_"__Now what did that railing ever do to you?" He asked teasingly, making the girl jump and release her tight grip on the railing._

_She turned to look at him with wide eyes, her curled hair framing her lovely face. Klaus was momentarily stunned, she was even more beautiful up close. He had been right about her eyes, blue with flecks of gold and absolutely captivating. Her cheeks were flushed red and her lips covered in some sort of pink gloss. She was divine. _

_"__What? Oh, nothing." She said quickly, her voice like a bell. She looked back down at her freshly manicured hands sheepishly. "I just uh, not having the best night, you know?"_

_"__No actually I don't know." Klaus replied in his smooth accent, leaning against the railing beside her. "Care to explain?"_

_The beauty bit her lip for a second before sighing. "Well okay, see I didn't even want to come to this stupid party but my best friend Stefan asked me to, he's like, partners with the guys who own this company. I've never met any of the actual owners but if you ask me they seem like snobs since this party is in a freaking mansion of all places. I mean when I hear Christmas party I'm thinking hot chocolate and sugar cookies, not champagne and baked salmon."_

_Klaus had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, this girl obviously had no idea that he was one of the 'snobs' that owned this company, along with his brothers and sister. Well, brothers minus one, Kol didn't count since he moved to Chicago. _

_"__But anyways," she continued her rambling, "My ex-boyfriend is down there on the dance floor with his new girlfriend, over there on the left side. He's in a black suit, duh, and she's in a green dress, the blonde haired one wearing way too much makeup." She pointed and Klaus looked down. He wanted to laugh yet again, she was pointing at none other than his sister Rebekah and her new beau Matt. Huh, interesting. He hummed, tilting his chin down._

_"__Right?" She said in a disgusted tone, mistaking his reaction for intrigue rather than amusement. "She's actually one of those snobs that owns this place, rich brat. But the guy is my ex, Matt We dated in high school but broke up when I came here to go to NYU – I'm an interior design major – and now that he's moved to the city and opened his own bar we tried to date again but he dumped me for her! But I mean it's not that big of a deal because I was going to break up with him anyways, but seriously? Her? A spoiled rich brat that has really good fashion taste and is actually kind of nice? Ugh! I'd rather he date some sleazy hag so I could _really_ hate her."_

_She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, burning holes into his sister's back. Klaus was stunned for a moment before he started laughing, shaking his head. The girl turned to him quickly, an annoyed look on her face._

_"__What?" She asked incredulously._

_"__Oh, nothing, darling, nothing. It's just that when most people talk about my sister, they hate her for reasons other than being likable." He teased, smirking as he waited for her to figure it out._

_"__Wait, what? Sister? I don't…" She trailed off, looking down at Rebekah for a moment before her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped. "Oh my gosh!" She shouted, taking a step back and covering her mouth. "I'm so sorry, you must be one of the Mikaelsons, I didn't mean to offend you, and I was just kidding about Rebekah wearing too much makeup, and _oh my gosh_ I just trash talked your baked salmon."_

_Klaus chuckled yet again, smiling wider than he had in a long time. "It's alright love, really. Honestly though, if it were my choice we wouldn't be having this party at all, it's more my brother Elijah and your friend Stefan's doing."_

_Caroline gulped, biting her lip as Klaus stared at the flush in her cheeks. She truly was beautiful._

_It was quiet for a few seconds, Caroline mulling in her embarrassment and Klaus staring at her unabashedly. He decided right then and there that this blonde beauty who rambled and saw the good parts of people she had every reason to dislike, this girl was the kind of girl he wanted in his life. He wanted to know her._

_"__So love, tell me, a beautiful girl like you must have a beautiful name."_

_"__You've got to be kidding me, right?"_

_#######_

"Dammit Rebekah, what were you thinking?" Klaus shouted, throwing his empty gun to the ground in a rage.

"What was I thinking?" Rebekah scoffed, trailing after him through the abandoned streets, tripping over a pothole in the road. "I was thinking that Lexi is sick and needed that medication! What else was I supposed to do, just sit and-"

"Yes." Klaus interrupted her, spinning around and stopping her in her tracks, glaring down at his little sister. "You were supposed to just sit and let us take care of it. Not go running inside a damn pharmacy on a rescue mission by yourself without telling anyone! Did you not even think that those creatures would be in there ready to tear you to shreds? They hide inside buildings just like that during the day!"

"I know that Nik!" Rebekah shouted back at him, tears welling up in her eyes as they always did when she was angry or hurt. In this case, both. "We've been running from those things for eight months don't you think I know how this works? But you nor Elijah would have listened to stupid little me and I won't watch another person die! I can't! Especially not Lexi, you see how much she means to Stefan!"

Klaus sighed, turning away from Rebekah and rubbing his hands over his dirt covered face. He loved his little sister with all his heart, but she had a tendency to put herself in particularly life threatening situations too often for his liking. A few months ago she had run after a child that was obviously carrying the virus and Elijah had to tackle her to the ground before killing the child himself and dragging her away. Or like two weeks ago the group had traded supplies with a man whose nose had just started bleeding – the first sign of the virus. Rebekah pleaded with the man to join them, and Matt had to pull her away and console her when Klaus cut off his head.

And now this. Lexi is sick, and Rebekah took it upon herself to go running into a pharmacy – abandoned, like everything else – to try and find medicine for her. Seemingly uncaring of the fact that the Infected hide in places like that during the daytime to avoid the sun burning their flaky skin.

"I won't apologize Nik." Rebekah's voice trembled. Her brother stopped in his tracks, not turning around to look at her. "I won't apologize for trying to save our friend's life."

"She is not our friend, Rebekah!" He exploded, rounding on her once again, ignoring the pang in his chest when she stepped away from him out of fear. "This is the bloody apocalypse, we don't have friends! We can't trust anyone, not even ourselves! In five minutes she could have the virus and be trying to kill us for all we know!"

The tears finally started running down Rebekah's face and Klaus immediately softened.

"Bekah –"

"Niklaus? Rebekah?" Elijah's voice rang out, and the two turned to face their older sibling as he walked up to them on the street, his face rugged and worn, upper arm wrapped in a tourniquet from where an Infected had thrown him against a wall with nails sticking out of it. It would never cease to be odd to Klaus seeing his older brother rugged and worn down and not so put together like he always was before The Outbreak, wearing cargo pants and combat boots and a ripped shirt instead of an Armani suit and tie. But his sophisticated posture and speech had never changed despite the times.

"What is going on here?" Elijah asked calmly, coming to stand in between his always feuding siblings. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened 'Lijah." Klaus said all too cheerfully. "Our beloved sister here almost got herself killed yet again! This time she ran into that old pharmacy by herself, if I hadn't heard her calling for help she would either be dead or have the virus so just be glad –"

"Oh shut up Nik!" Rebekah interrupted. "No one else is doing anything to save Lexi, and I am not some incompetent child!"

"Really now? Because it certainly seems like you're throwing a child-like temper tantrum Bekah!"

"Enough!" Elijah silenced them both, his authoritative voice making Klaus and Elijah both look down. "You're _both_ acting like children. Rebekah, how many times do we have to tell you not to go into buildings without someone else? You know better, that's where they hide. Did you even think about what would have happened to us if you were infected?" Rebekah looked down shamefully. "And Niklaus," he turned to his brother, "Rebekah is fully capable of taking care of herself despite her occasional rash decisions, lest you forget she's saved your life a time or two."

Klaus turned away, not making eye contact with Rebekah. Elijah was right, his sister had saved his life from an Infected more than once, many times actually. The Outbreak had hardened her, made her strong where she had previously been weak. But her tender heart was still there where his has blackened, and that's what got her into trouble so often.

"So I suggest you not reprimand her so." Elijah continued. "We are all wearing thin, Matt, Stefan, and Lexi included. But we have to keep our end goal in mind, finding our family."

Klaus visibly tensed as he thought about Caroline. Elijah was obviously thinking about his wife Katherine and of course their brother Kol, both whom Klaus loved also – well, he loved Katherine sometimes. But there was never a time that Caroline was not on his mind. His right hand instinctively moved to touch his left wrist, where a plain white string was resting like a bracelet. It was all he had to remember her by, not a picture or any other item. He had tried to go to her apartment a few days after The Outbreak initially happened, but it had been completely destroyed by one of the government bombings. Before the government collapsed, of course.

"You're right, Elijah." Rebekah said softly, bringing Klaus out of his thoughts. "I wasn't thinking clearly, I'm sorry. I just…we have to do something for Lexi."

"And we will." Elijah assured her immediately. "But we will do it the right way, the way that no one else gets killed. We'll travel towards the city tomorrow, and find someone that we can trade with."

"What do we have to trade?" Klaus asked in accusation. "I just used our last bullets on Bekah's friends at the pharmacy! We can't give anyone any food because we haven't any ourselves and oh – I forgot, we traded our last gallon of gasoline for the food we had to leave behind when our dear sister's boyfriend had us running from a group of bloody zombies for two miles!" He growled.

"That was not Matt's fault and you know it!" Rebekah screamed.

"Enough!" Elijah shouted yet again, even louder than before. "Rebekah, go find Matt."

"But –"

"Now, Rebekah."

Their sister knew that there was no arguing with Elijah at that point, and she huffed and stomped off, but not before throwing the finger to Klaus.

"Oh very mature, Bekah!" He shouted back at her, to which she just turned around and stuck out her tongue. "What was it you were saying about her being an adult now, 'Lijah?"

"Be quiet, Niklaus." Elijah replied. "She is 21 and you treat her like an adolescent. A 21 year old, mind you, that is going through the same hardships that we are."

"You know that isn't true just as well as I do, Elijah. She has her little quarterback, _we_ are the ones missing someone."

"You think she doesn't miss them just as much as we do?" Elijah asked rhetorically. "She adores Katerina, looks up to her even."

Klaus rolled his eyes. He used to think Elijah called Katherine by her birth given name just to irritate her – because it did – but even after being separated for eight months he still referred to her as such.

"Not to mention that she had finally started to think of Caroline as family, even said so much many times."

"It's not the same, and you know it." Klaus mumbled harshly.

"I do know that." Elijah said, ever the calm one in their arguments. "But it doesn't make her pain any more insignificant. It would do you well to remember that."

Klaus was silent, sighing as he looked at his older brother. For the past eight months Elijah had never wavered, he had always been strong, he had always been collected. Every other one of them had broken down multiple times, screaming, crying, shaking their fist at the sky over this apocalypse and the tolls it had taken on their lives. Seeing death and destruction at every turn, not knowing if you would make it another day, it tore at their very souls. Yet Elijah had never fallen apart.

"How do you do it?" Klaus asked quietly. Elijah cocked his head to the side in question. "How do you make it every day? How do you keep that damned level head of yours when we could all die tomorrow?"

The corner of Elijah's mouth pulled up slightly as he put his dirty hands in his pockets, rigid posture never slackening. He looked down at his feet for a moment before looking back at Klaus.

"I think of her." He said with brutal honesty. "I think of how much I have to get back to her. I think of how much I love her, how much I need to see her again. And I do what I must to find her because I know she's doing the same for me."

Klaus scoffed. "Oh please, Elijah, you don't even know if she's alive."

"Oh I know." He said, not even a hint of doubt in his voice. "Katerina Petrova is fierce in every aspect of her life, and I know survival is no different. I am sure of her well-being."

"And yet you worry for her still?"

"Of course I worry, she is my wife. I worried for her before all of this," he gestured to the crumbling town around them, "happened. I will always worry for her. But Katerina is capable of anything. She's headstrong, she won't be going down without a fight. And that's why I also know that Caroline is alive as well."

Klaus snapped his head up to look at his brother when her name was mentioned.

"You're so sure?" He hissed. "You nor I were there to protect either of them, she could be dead or an Infected right now!"

"Katerina would sooner die than see anything happen to Caroline, you know this. And because my Katerina has no desire to die anytime soon, I can safely say that Caroline is alive." Elijah said, not affected by his brother's outburst.

Klaus went silent, thinking about Caroline. His sweet Caroline, so optimistic and bright, always finding joy even in the bleakest of situations. If she were with him now, even the apocalypse wouldn't be so hard to handle. But curse his misfortune, of course she had flown out to Chicago the day before The Outbreak with Katherine and Elena to see their Aunt Jenna. He briefly wondered if she was with his brother Kol. Then he wondered even more briefly if it made him an awful human being if he thought of his girlfriend more than he thought of his youngest brother. Because the answer was probably yes.

"Have heart, brother." Elijah said seriously, stepping up to Klaus and placing a hand on his shoulder. Klaus glanced at the blood soaked tourniquet on his brother's arm, the dirt smeared on his face, the scars on his chest from where his shirt was ripped. "We will find our way back to our family. _All_ of our family. Have faith."

Klaus looked up at his older brother, remembering all the times that he had heart that phrase as a child, when Elijah would comfort him every time their father – no, _Elijah's_ father – would give him yet another bruise, or battle scar. Elijah would always say to have faith, things would get better. And they did. Elijah had never failed him, never left him. They stayed together, always and forever.

Suddenly, the two brothers heard inhuman shouts from what seemed to be a few blocks east of them. The sun was about to set, and that meant the Infected were bound to be out soon. They needed to find somewhere to hide, stockpile what weapons they had to make it through the night.

Klaus absently thumbed the white string around his wrist again, remembering the promise he had made to someone very special what felt like very long ago, but actually wasn't.

"I'll find you, Caroline." He whispered to himself, not caring if Elijah heard or not. "I'll always find my way back to you."

#######

**A/N: Read and review! Please!**


	2. Chapter 2 - Something To Remember Me By

Chapter 2 – Something To Remember Me By

**A/N: Just a reminder that all flashbacks are in italics! And I'm doing the flashbacks out of chronological order because I think it makes things more interesting, and I'm the author so I can! Read and review please, hope you enjoy! And make sure to follow me on tumblr (I'm new so I have like no followers) at .com **

######

_"__Caroline love, where is your corkscrew?" Klaus called out from his girlfriend's tiny kitchen. They had been dating for three months now and he had spent countless days – and nights – at her small apartment yet still had the hardest time finding things._

_"__Uhhh, corkscrew, corkscrew, corkscrew…try the drawer to the left of the silverware!" Caroline shouted from her bedroom where she was changing into some more comfortable clothes. They had just gotten back from seeing a dreadful play in Brooklyn, and she had somehow roped him into watching _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ at her place since he had never seen it. _

_Klaus checked the drawer thoroughly, metal clanging around, but to no avail._

_"__Sweetheart this wine is calling my name and I am denying it the opportunity to give me what it wants since I am still without a corkscrew!"_

_"__Oh please." Caroline scoffed, stepping out of her bedroom just a few steps away now clad in grey sweatpants and a thin pink tank top. "You make that wine sound like your other secret girlfriend." She teased, swatting at his butt when she walked past him and began rifling through the other drawers._

_He dodged her easily, laughing. "Of course not! My other girlfriend is actually a brunette, shy little thing but I tell you –"_

_Klaus was cut off when she started throwing silverware at him, and he yelped when a spoon hit him in the thigh._

_"__What was that? I couldn't hear you over your girlish squealing!" Caroline shouted, tossing one more fork at him for good measure._

_Klaus picked up the fork that he had narrowly dodged and pointed it at his lovely girlfriend._

_"__That was rude."_

_"__No, that was necessary." Caroline bit back with a smirk, letting out a shout of triumph as she finally fished out the corkscrew. "Found it!"_

_She turned to him and grinned widely, handing him the device. He took it with a chuckle, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her to him, kissing her firmly on the mouth, her plump lips turning up at the corners as he did so. _

_"__Did you mean that about your other girlfriend?" She murmured, lips still lingering over his. _

_"__Of course not love." He said, kissing her fully yet again. "You know I have a thing for feisty little blondes."_

_Caroline's chuckle turned into a full on squeal as Klaus suddenly wrapped both of his arms around her middle and tossed her over his shoulder, swatting her rear in the process. _

_"__Now where did that wine go…?"_

######

"Caroline, can you _please_ explain to me how you haven't had the luxury of a hot shower and nice shampoo in months, yet your hair still looks good? I mean you have dirt all over your face and under your nails, blood stains on your clothes that you've been wearing for days, you smell disgusting -"

"Oh gee thanks."

"-and yet your hair still looks perfect! So you're basically defying the basic laws of nature."

Caroline chuckled, popping her knuckles as Elena braided her hair back into a ponytail. This was a daily morning ritual for them since Caroline's bangs tended to fall out of her hair tie and get in her face. And when fighting cannibalistic zombies daily, one can't exactly afford to have stray hairs in the way.

"I guess it's just good genes." Caroline sighed. "I always loved playing with my mom's hair when I was a kid. Then she had to go and cut it all off for her mid-life crisis."

Elena laughed. "I remember when that happened. You came to school so upset, it might as well have been _your_ mid-life crisis."

Caroline chuckled. "Yeah, well, I used to be a tad dramatic."

Elena's movements in her hair stilled. "_Used_ to be, Caroline?"

"Oh shutup!"

The girls laughed, Elena's nimble fingers going back to the braid. Caroline sighed, she loved it when people played with her hair. Klaus used to –

_No. Don't go there Caroline._ She thought to herself.

"I miss your mom." Elena suddenly said, which Caroline was grateful for. "She always asked about how my writing was going whenever we came home from New York. She was one of the few people who thought my dream to be an author wasn't just wishful thinking."

Caroline was quiet. She missed her mother Liz as well, but they had been estranged before The Outbreak. When her father Bill had come out to them as a homosexual and moved away with his boyfriend Stephen leaving the girls behind, Liz had immersed herself in work as the sheriff of Mystic Falls. But nothing bad ever happened in Mystic Falls, Virginia, so doing paperwork upon paperwork of parking tickets almost drove Liz crazy.

And Caroline was left to fend for herself. She tried to connect with her mother emotionally, but it was like talking to a brick wall sometimes. So she threw herself into everything she did. Caroline Forbes, head of the homecoming committee, student council, dance committee, captain of the cheer squad, member of the honors society, and about a hundred other clubs. Every event that happened in Mystic Falls was led by her, and that's why every event went off without a hitch. Everyone praised her for how cheerful and optimistic she was, and how much town spirit she had. She was Miss Mystic Falls.

Literally, she won the Miss Mystic Falls pageant three years in a row.

But no one ever saw her pain. No one saw her as anything other than perfect little Caroline Forbes. No one until Klaus.

"I miss _my_ parents." Elena spoke, making Caroline jump as she was brought out of her thoughts. "Katherine and Jeremy never want to talk about home. Even before The Outbreak it was like that. After my parents split, both of them just completely put Mystic Falls behind them. I mean Katherine changed her last name for goodness sake."

"Well she _had_ to change it when she got married to Elijah." Caroline said.

"No, you know what I mean." Elena said exasperatedly. "When my parents got divorced and she found out my dad was cheating, she changed her last name from Gilbert to Petrova, my mom's maiden name."

"Wait, I thought she changed it to Pierce?" Caroline turned around and asked as Elena tapped her head to let her know the braid was finished. The two girls stood up and started making their way over to where Alaric and Damon were talking to a nomad with a trailer full of water bottles, apparently trying to cut a deal with him.

"No, she changed it from Petrova to Pierce a few years after that because she thought it had a better ring to it." Elena said with a roll of her eyes.

"Where the hell was I when all of this happened?" Caroline asked indignantly as they stopped a few feet away from where the boys were haggling with the nomad. Sometimes trades got messy – actually, most of the time trades got messy – so the girls both lowered their hands towards their weapons on their sides just as a precaution.

"This was right after you met Klaus." Elena answered her, never taking her eyes off of Damon and Alaric. "So you were a bit distracted. Understandably so."

Caroline spaced out for a second at the mention of his name.

"Yeah." She murmured. "Understandable."

She could feel Elena's gaze on her briefly. "You know you can talk to me about him, right? Klaus, I mean. You can always talk to me Care, I'm sure you must be – "

"No I can't." Caroline cut her off quickly, still looking forward. "I can't talk about him Elena, I can't even think about him. I don't have the time to. All I can think about is that that trader might have the virus and I need to watch and make sure his nose doesn't start bleeding. Or about how we need to barricade ourselves up somewhere before nightfall so we don't get caught by any Infected. Or how Alaric needs to be on his game better when he sees a redheaded Infected even though I know it reminds him of Jenna. Or which one of us would have to kill Damon if he gets scratched by an Infected tomorrow."

Caroline turned to face Elena head on as the trade finished without a hitch, the boys taking the crate of water bottles and carrying them over to where Kol and Bonnie were standing, Jeremy and Katherine nearby as well.

"If I stop for one second and think about him, really think about him, I'll never stop. I'll never stop thinking about how he's probably dead."

"You don't know that Care –"

"You're right." Caroline didn't let her finish. "I don't know that. But what I do know, is that we have about eleven hours before sundown. That's eleven hours to make sure that we don't get killed or Infected until we can hole ourselves up. Eleven hours to try and survive. So for now, I'm just going to focus on what I know."

With that, Caroline pushed past Elena, purposefully bumping into her friend's elbow as she made her way over to the rest of her group, save Damon who was walking towards Elena.

"What's up with her?" Damon asked his girlfriend in his typical snarky tone.

Elena sighed, reaching for his hand when he got close to her. "She's just stressed, like all of us."

"Well yeah, it's the friggin' apocalypse, did she think it was going to be Candyland?"

"Damon." Elena sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He murmured, reached up and pushing Elena's hair back away from her face, the pad of his thumb wiping away some dirt on her cheek. "She misses him."

"We all miss someone." Elena said dejectedly. It was quiet for a moment before she took in a deep breath, putting on a smile and straightening up. "But it's okay. Because we're going to find them. We're going to find Stefan, and Lexi, and Klaus, and Elijah, and Matt and Rebekah. And we're all going to find them in one piece."

Damon stared at her for a moment, shaking his head fondly. "When did you become Miss Optimistic? I thought that was Blondie's job."

"Yeah well it was available, so I had to take it." Elena shrugged.

Both of them looked over at the shell of who used to be Caroline Forbes, ever optimistic and cheerful, always seeing the good in everything and everyone, their rock. But now she was just that: a shell of her former self. She was hard, a killer now. All of them were killers, but Caroline better than most.

"What the hell happened to her?" Damon whispered.

"She lost him. She lost her epic love." Elena replied. "And now she's lost hope, too."

#######

_"__What exactly is your fascination with Audrey Hepburn?" Klaus asked, looking down as Caroline tilted her head back to where it was perched on his lap, her legs stretching over the arm of the couch. _

_"__What are you talking about?" Caroline asked incredulously, her voice muffled from the M&Ms she was popping into her mouth. "She's perfect. Perfect style, perfect attitude, perfect everything! She's the definition of a classy, strong, independent woman, who doesn't need a man. But she'll take one if he comes along."_

_Klaus chuckled, nodding his head in mock understanding. "Well nobody is perfect, darling. Except you, you're pretty damn close."_

_Caroline sat up quickly, criss-crossing her legs so her knees were resting on his thigh._

_"__Oh no, she was definitely perfect. Her fashion sense is so important, she basically defined her generation and future ones to come!"_

_"__Are you completely disregarding that incredibly charming compliment I just gave you, sweetheart?"_

_"__Oh no, I heard it." She said matter-of-factly. "I'm just choosing to ignore it."_

_"__Ah yes." Klaus said, smiling at her fondly and pushing her hair back. "The night we met you told me that you were too smart to be fooled by my charm and my, my, were you right."_

_Caroline smirked before a thought crossed her mind and her face dawned in realization. "The night we met, you remember that dress I was wearing?"_

_Klaus scoffed. "Do I remember it, I practically dreamed about it every night for the next month that you absolutely refused to go out with me."_

_She scoffed indignantly. "Excuse you, don't get that tone. You were being a jerk, I had every reason not to go out with you."_

_"__Yet look where we are now." He held his hands out and grinned triumphantly._

_Caroline rolled her eyes. "Okay anyways, back to the dress I was wearing, that was styled after Audrey Hepburn!"_

_"__How absolutely interesting, love. Please, go on." He muttered sarcastically, yawning dramatically._

_"__You know what, you're being a jerk so I'm going to make you look at the dress yourself and see what I'm talking about." Caroline stood up quickly, grabbing Klaus' hand and pulling him up as well._

_"__But darling, what about the movie – "_

_"__We'll rewatch it tomorrow!"_

_"__Damn."_

_"__What was that?"_

_"__Nothing, love. Nothing at all. Now where is this dress of yours? Do I get to see you wear it again if I behave?"_

_Caroline dragged him over to her closet and began rifling through it. "Perhaps." She said coyly, winking at him over her shoulder._

_Klaus' eyes widened at the prospect of seeing his love in that divine dress yet again, she hadn't worn it since. However he quite wanted to see it on the floor more than on her if he were honest._

_"__Aha!" Caroline shouted. "Here it is."_

_She pulled out the white dress that had haunted his dreams for so long when he first met his little vixen four months ago. It was amazing how much could change in so little time. How healed a heart could be._

_"__Oh no!" Caroline said in horror._

_"__What is it?" Klaus asked worriedly._

_"__It has a tear! My dress has a tear! Damn!"_

_"__Now what is this?" Klaus asked, reaching out and picking up the edge of the dress where the tear in question was. "Caroline this is a string. A single string, not a tear."_

_"__But that little string could unravel the whole hem and then the dress is ruined and –"_

_Caroline snapped her mouth shut when Klaus pulled the string quickly, ripping it from the dress._

_"__See?" He asked with a grin, holding it up. "Good as new, like it was never even there."_

_She didn't say anything, just stared at the white string being held from Klaus' fingertips._

_"__You tore the string." She said quietly. "You're not supposed to rip the string that could mess up the whole dress."_

_"__But I didn't!" He said with a grin, handing it over to Caroline. She took it quietly._

_"__Thank you." Caroline said sincerely, looking down at the string. "You know what, give me your hand."_

_"__What?"_

_She rolled her eyes and grabbed his left wrist, wrapping the string around it and tying it securely before turning his hand over and looking at it with a smile. She tilted her head up to meet Klaus' eyes._

_"__There. Now you always have something to remember me by."_

_Klaus chuckled, gently taking her face in his hands._

_"__Well thank you sweetheart, but I don't need anything to remember you by. You're all I ever think about after all."_

_"__Not even your secret brunette girlfr –"_

_She was silenced as he pressed his mouth to hers urgently. _

_Turns out the dress did end up on the floor that night._

######

"So what we know about these zombies –"

"They're not zombies, they're just infected with some sort of killer virus. Zombies are undead creatures, these people are very much alive, just…murderous."

"Yes I am aware of that, but zombies is easier than saying all of that, so I'm going to refer to them as such. Got it?"

"Alright got it, geez."

Klaus rolled his eyes as he beat his shirt against a rock next to the creek he had just washed it in. A few feet behind him was Stefan, Matt, Rebekah, Lexi, and Elijah talking to some woman they had met up with a few miles back who apparently had information about a cure to the virus. Stefan was the one currently talking to and getting scolded by the woman.

But Klaus wasn't buying it, at all. The woman, Rose, was on her own, apparently her boyfriend or husband or someone had been killed during The Outbreak. She was desperate to find a travelling group, and everyone in Klaus' own little posse was too damn nice to tell her to bugger off. Except him of course. And naturally the prospect of being heroes and finding a cure to the incurable disease of the Infected peaked everyone's interests besides his own.

"So when someone comes into contact with an Infected through a scratch, blood sharing, bite, sexual contact, and the like –"

"Wait sexual contact?" Matt interrupted. "How the hell do you know it can be passed on as an STD?"

"I've heard stories." Rose replied, her short, dirty brown hair flopping in front of her eyes. "Everywhere I go I ask people what they know, and when a story is corroborated enough times, I accept it as truth."

"A real scientist we have over here ladies and gentlemen." Klaus mumbled under his breath so low no one could hear as he wrung out his shirt one more time and threw it over his shoulder before making his way back to the group.

"Like I was saying, when someone is initially infected, it takes about an hour for the irritability to begin. They get snappy, angered easily, sometimes a nervous tick kicks in. Then another two hours passes and their nose starts to bleed, that's the real tell-tale sign."

"Do you have any useful information?" Klaus asked cynically, making everyone turn to him. "Or are you just going to tell us things that we and everyone else on this godforsaken planet already know?"

Rose glared for a moment, her green eyes piercing his with ferocity. "I'm getting there." She said bluntly. "When the nose starts to bleed is often when the attacks begin. At first the Infected is just murderous, they want to see anyone and everyone dead, but can sometimes stop themselves if you can make them slow down and think for a moment. But after about four or five hours of the Infection spreading throughout their body, there's no hope, they'll kill anyone, even their own child."

"Yeah, we've seen that a time or two." Stefan murmured, looking down at the ground.

"But this is the real kicker," Rose continued, not taking any consideration to Stefan's implied statement, "It takes about three weeks for the Infection to fully set in. By that I mean flaky skin, red eyes, burning in the sun, all of it."

"And you know this, how?" Elijah asked, leaning forward to place his elbows on his knees. "That's just speculation, no one has been able to observe an Infected for a long period of time."

"Yeah, because they're murderous bastards." Lexi said in a hoarse voice, her body racking with coughs moments after.

Stefan wrapped an arm around his friend and she leaned into his body and shivered. She was getting worse and worse each day, and Klaus wondered what Stefan would do if she didn't make it.

"I have." Rose said to Elijah, whose eyebrows shot up.

"You've observed an Infected?" Klaus asked in a bored, disbelieving tone. "And you're still alive to tell the tale? Well now we know you're lying."

"It's true." She spat at him. "About a hundred miles west of here, along the Indiana-Ohio border there is a small settlement of survivors. They have walls built all around in order to keep the Infected out at night. It's only about a mile in diameter, but it's the first established place I've seen yet."

"Impossible." Elijah said. "We would have heard of such a safe haven by now."

"Well you're hearing it now." Replied Rose. "Not many people are exactly keen on leaving the safest place in the country, maybe even the world, just to tell other survivors where it is. Yet here I am."

"Here you are." Klaus said dauntingly, leaning forwards from his perch on a tree stump. "Telling us all about this mystery safe haven, with no proof, no real evidence. How do we know you're not just sending us to a group of scientists who want to use us as lab rats for the impossible cure?"

It wasn't a far off theory. Since The Outbreak, mob groups that were trying to become the new government had tracked down scientists that had survived, forced them to find newly Infected people and cut them open while they were still breathing. It didn't last long though, since the scientists were usually killed themselves by the Infected.

"Why would I do that?" Asked Rose. "You people have been nothing but kind to me, and I would benefit nothing from sending you to your deaths. And I'm not _sending_ you anywhere, I'm trying to tell you what I know now will you please shut it and let me finish?"

Klaus inhaled sharply and went to stand up and give this stranger a piece of his mind, but Stefan put a hand on his shoulder and forced him back down.

"Please, Rose, continue." He said, glaring at Klaus with a look that said 'shut the hell up.'

"Thank you, Stefan. Now this safe haven is called Whitmore, and its people have set up a functioning town. There is a group of ten people, five men and five women, who are like a team of mayors. There's a school, a farm with animals and fertile crops, a well with clean water, and a police-like force that patrols the walls 24/7."

"How did this all get set up?" Rebekah asked. "It sounds impossible."

"For a long time it seemed it was. Many people died building that wall, but once it was up they were able to send out the word to survivors nearby that they had a safe haven. Eventually most people in a fifty mile radius made their way to it, which meant former teachers and farmers and policemen. They were able to set up a system. And it somehow worked."

"But get back to the cure." Matt said. "How did you observe an Infected if the whole point of this Whitmore place was to keep them out?"

Rose sighed, lacing her hands together. "Because we brought one in."

"You what?" Rebekah asked incredulously. "You could have infected the entire place you worked so hard to build!"

"But we didn't." Rose shot back. "One of our patrols got to close to an Infected when they were attacking the walls one night. He got scratched, just barely, but enough for the virus to get in his bloodstream. Before he even started to get extremely irritable, before the nose bleed, we took him to a cell we had created. It was impossible to escape, we had him strapped down to a table with three inch thick iron cuffs and belts. His face was muzzled, he couldn't hurt any of us."

"You did all of this to someone before the Infection set in?" Stefan asked.

"Yes. The boy volunteered." Rose said simply. "Over the course of the next few weeks, we observed his behavior, took his vitals along the way. His skin started to flake after a week. He was sensitive to the light from the beginning, but it only started to burn him two weeks after the onset of the Infection. His eyes became red and began to bleed after just under a month."

"Did you feed him? Hydrate him?" Elijah inquired.

"Neither. He was self-sustaining for the time frame we had him. Just incredibly murderous."

"The time frame you had him?" Klaus repeated, leaning back. "What does that mean?"

Rose was silent for a few seconds. "It means we handed him over."

"Handed him over? To whom?" Elijah asked.

Rose didn't say anything.

"Answer his question, woman." Demanded Klaus. "Who did you hand the Infected over to? Why didn't you just kill him?"

Rose glared at her accuser for a few seconds before taking a deep breath.

"We handed him over to the only man capable of creating the cure. He's still at Whitmore, still experimenting on the boy as far as I've heard. And trust me, he can do it. He can make the cure, I'm sure of it."

"And what gives you such faith in this scientist in your little safe haven?" Klaus asked with a sarcastic undertone.

"Because he's the one who created the virus in the first place." Rose snapped immediately.

Everyone stilled, even Lexi who was shaking with a fever against Stefan's side.

"What?" Klaus asked, sincere for once.

"Dr. Wes Maxfield. The man who created this killer virus. He's at Whitmore. And he's trying to find the cure."

**#######**

**A/N: [Rebel Wilson voice] Whoomp…there it is.**

**Read and review because it would make me happy! What do you think will happen next?**

**Follow me on tumblr because I have no friends: .com**


	3. Chapter 3 - The Name's

**Chapter 3 – The Name's...**

**A/N: Hey guys! So this chapter is set up the same way as the last two (i.e. flashback, apocalyptic POV, flashback, second apocalyptic POV), except that Klaus' apocalyptic POV comes before Caroline's this time. Idk if that's even super important to let you guys know, but I'm telling you anyways. Okay that's all, please read and review!**

#######

_"__So did you guys hear that they're going to start human trials on that new cure for cancer?" Elena asked as she started pulling ingredients for a salad out of Caroline's fridge._

_Katherine groaned from her perch on the couch in front of the TV, legs crossed and a glass of wine hanging loosely from her hand._

_"__Of course we've all heard about it 'Lena. It's all anyone is talking about, on the news, on Twitter, on Facebook –"_

_"__Ew you still use Facebook?" Caroline asked with a disgusted look as she looked up from the pot of boiling spaghetti._

_"__Hey, I was stalking one of my ex-boyfriends, don't judge me." Katherine muttered, pushing herself up from the couch and walking over to her friends, hopping up on the counter next to Caroline._

_"__Who were you stalking?" Elena asked._

_Katherine sighed, kicking her ankles back and forth. "Galen Vaughn."_

_"__Ew!" Caroline exclaimed. "That guy you dated senior year that was like, six years older than you?" Katherine nodded. "He was such a creep!"_

_"__Yeah seriously Kat, why were you looking him up when you're getting married to Elijah in three days need I remind you?" Elena inquired, looking at her twin sister in concern._

_"__Um, so I could see that my life is going a hundred times better than his is? Why else?" Katherine asked as if it were the most obvious explanation in the world._

_The girls laughed at her self-assured tone._

_"__Katherine I swear you are the most vain person in the entire world." Elena muttered._

_"__Thank you!" She replied sincerely, making the other two roll their eyes. "But back to what you were asking, that cancer cure or whatever."_

_"__Yeah!" Caroline said, taking the spaghetti off the stove and transferring it to the strainer over the sink. "Apparently they're starting the tests on real people next month like, all over the world."_

_"__Well it's not just a cure." Elena weighed in as she tossed the salad. "Apparently it can prevent people from ever even _getting_ cancer in the future."_

_"__Sounds too good to be true." Katherine muttered, refilling her wine glass. "I mean cancer is a million dollar industry, as twisted as that is. If a cure _and_ a preventative measure was invented, it could mean a major loss of revenue in several major worldwide corporations. Economies all over the globe would suffer major setbacks if it were released."_

_Elena and Caroline were completely frozen in what they were doing, staring at Katherine with wide eyes._

_"__What?" She asked innocently. "I have my smart moments!"_

_"__Says you." A voice from the doorway spoke, stepping into the apartment. "Well look at you ladies, you _can_ clean up nice."_

_"__Damon." Katherine muttered in disgust, looking into her wine glass. "So glad you could finally make it." _

_Elena walked past Katherine, grabbing the drink out of her hand and ignoring her sister's cries of protest, pouring it out into the sink before walking over to her boyfriend._

_"__It's not even six o'clock Kat." She shot at her twin. "Hey." She murmured to Damon before kissing him lightly on the mouth. "Where are the rest of the guys?"_

_"__And Lexi too!" Caroline cut in._

_"__Don't worry, they're –"_

_"__Here." Elijah interrupted smoothly, stepping into the apartment, clad in suit and tie as always, and holding a bottle of much nicer wine than the one Caroline had in her pantry. "We apologize for being late, it seems that Stefan and Niklaus' disagreement at the office kept us from noticing the time."_

_Katherine jumped down from the counter easily despite her high heeled boots and walked over to Elijah with her signature swagger. _

_"__Ooo look at my fiancée bringing good wine, he knows me so well." She murmured, wrapping an arm around his neck and kissing him soundly._

_"__Katherine darling could you please not suck the life out of my brother while I'm standing right here." Klaus grumbled as he maneuvered around the couple and their very public display of affection._

_Katherine flipped her future brother-in-law off without even breaking their kiss. He rolled his eyes and walked over to his own girlfriend who was pulling plates out of a high cabinet, reaching up on her tiptoes so that her already short yellow dress showed even more leg._

_"__Hello gorgeous." He murmured, wrapping his arms around her middle and startling her, making her spin around in his hold quickly._

_"__Well hello to you too." She bit her lip, kissing him, heat stirring in her belly when his grip on her waist tightened._

_"__Okay, all this love is making me sick." _

_Caroline and Klaus broke apart at Stefan's voice, and Caroline immediately felt bad that she hadn't even seen him standing beside the door with his hands in the pockets of his slacks._

_"__Oh look, my brother is brooding, how shocking." Damon muttered from where he stood with his hand around Elena's waist. "You know you could probably get a girlfriend if you stopped being so depressing everywhere you go."_

_"__Shutup Damon." Caroline muttered, smacking him in the back of the head as she walked over to Stefan._

_"__Rude, Blondie!"_

_"__Hey Stef." Caroline said with a bright smile, ignoring Damon like always._

_She hugged her best friend tightly, his strong build familiar to her since they had been friends for years, since middle school when he and Damon's father was killed and they had to move to Mystic Falls to live with their Uncle Zach. Behind her, Elena started to set out plates and silverware, smacking Damon's hand every time he tried to steal some food. Katherine and Elijah were still all over each other, and Klaus had meandered off to the corner of the room to answer a phone call._

_"__Hey Caroline." Stefan said with a non-forced smile for once. "You look nice."_

_"__So do you! And hey, just ignore Damon. I know you're still getting over Dana, and it'll take some time."_

_"__No, Dana isn't the reason I'm not dating, it's just…you know what, nevermind, I'm not going to complain about my lack of a love life right now."_

_"__Stefan –"_

_"__No, seriously. Tonight is our last spaghetti night before two of our best friends get married! Let's enjoy it. I'll put Brooding Stefan in a corner, I promise."_

_Caroline sighed, looking at her best friend. He had a heart of gold and yet somehow he always got the short end of the stick. Even back in high school when he and Elena had a brief relationship, he treated her like a queen only for her to pick his older brother in the end. _

_"__Alright, fine." Caroline muttered, looping her arm through Stefan's and walking back towards the kitchen where Elijah and Damon were now talking to Klaus, and Elena and Katherine were bickering over which character from Sex and the City was their favorite. Caroline grinned. "You know I like our little family. I hope things stay kind of the same after the wedding."_

_"__They will." Stefan said simply._

_"__Hey where's Lexi? I thought you said she was coming?"_

_Stefan looked down at his feet. "She, uh, she couldn't make it. She's going on a – a date."_

_"__Oh, that's a bummer." Caroline said. A few seconds passed and realization dawned on her face when she noticed Stefan's expression. "No!"_

_"__No what?" Stefan asked incredulously._

_"__No way! You like Lexi?"_

_"__Caroline, what are you – "_

_"__That's why you aren't dating!" Caroline interrupted. "This isn't about getting over Dana, it's because you already like someone!"_

_"__Caroline will you tone it down." He whispered harshly, turning to face her excited expression. "Okay, yes, I kind of…like, Lexi." He disregarded Caroline's squeal. "But it doesn't matter okay, she only sees me as a friend, she's always only seen me as a friend."_

_"__That's how all the best relationships start!"_

_"__You and Klaus didn't start out as friends." He pointed out. "You hated him for like a month, remember?"_

_"__Yeah, well Klaus and I are…" She looked over at where the love of her life was standing with her best friend and his brother. Almost as if he sensed her gaze, he looked to her and a smile immediately lit up his face. He winked at her briefly before looking back to where Damon was gesturing wildly about something._

_"__We're different." Caroline said simply, a fond smile on her face._

#######

"We have to keep moving." Klaus growled, pacing back and forth along the river bank where they had been camped out for the past two days. At night they would retreat to the abandoned cabin a quarter mile east of them, but during the day they stayed at the river for the sake of having water and being in the sun.

"Niklaus please, we must wait for Lexi to at least partially recover before we start moving again." Elijah pleaded with his brother as he knelt down next to Lexi, dabbing her feverish forehead with a wet rag that he had made from his shirt.

Elijah wasn't wrong, Lexi was getting weaker by the day. It seemed to be a simple bacterial infection – easily curable if they weren't facing the endtimes. Her fever had yet to break, she was achy all over, and sometimes she would lose lucidity, forgetting where she was. There was no way she could travel at this point and Klaus was well aware of that.

Next to where Lexi was laying in the dense sleeping bag, her small frame shaking, Stefan was sat next to her, holding her hand tightly in his own. His face was full of concern – even more so than usual. As the shaking started to get worse, he lifted her hand and pressed his lips to it gently.

Klaus sympathized for his friend, he truly did. It was painfully obvious even before The Outbreak that Stefan had feelings for Lexi, but he never acted upon them. And now in the middle of the apocalypse there hadn't exactly been an opportune moment to express those feelings. But he did so in ways that he could – protecting her at all costs, putting her safety before his own, defending her when their own group got hostile, which inevitably happened every now and then.

But now Lexi was sick, practically on her deathbed, and Stefan couldn't do anything about it. Except watch her pain.

"Elijah we're only about a hundred miles from this Whitmore place, which means we can make it there within the week if we leave now."

"Not even a week." Matt said from where he sat under a tree, his arm around Rebekah. "We usually cover about 20 to 25 miles a day, we could make it there in four or five days."

"There you go!" Klaus exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Five days Elijah, five days and we could be safe from these monsters. Five days and we could have a steady food and water supply!"

"For someone who was so disbelieving of Rose's story at first, you seem awfully assured of Whitmore's existence now." Elijah spat in a condescending tone, looking up at his brother. "What changed your mind?"

Klaus froze for a second, not wanting to admit the truth. Not wanting to admit that he was choosing to believe that Whitmore was real solely based on the slim hope that Caroline was there. That maybe she had heard about Whitmore and made it there, that she was teaching a group of snot nosed brats within the camp walls, that she was safe from the Infected at night.

"Perhaps I've decided to become an optimist." He finally said, holding his hands out and smirking sarcastically.

Rebekah barked out a laugh. "Right, and I'm the bloody tooth fairy."

"Why didn't you just leave with Rose yesterday?" Stefan finally spoke, looking over his shoulder at Klaus with a venomous gaze. "If you're so eager to get to the safe haven you should have just left us and gone with her."

Klaus tensed, his blue eyes glassy. He would never leave his family behind, even if it meant getting closer to the hope of finding Caroline. Elijah and Rebekah would never forgive him, and he would never forgive himself either. Not to mention that Klaus was easily the strongest fighter in the group, they needed him to survive. They _all_ needed each other.

"Look, I understand that you want to get there as soon as possible, I really do." Stefan continued. "I know you're hoping that Caroline and the others are there because we all know they would be heading towards New York and would pass through where Whitmore allegedly is anyway."

Everyone froze, Stefan voicing all of their private thoughts. It had been the elephant in the room for the past two days, everyone hoping and praying that perhaps their loved ones had heard of Whitmore and were there too. It was a slim hope, and hope was easy to cling on to in times like these. Stefan didn't stop though.

"We're all hoping for that, Klaus. Hoping that Damon, Elena, Katherine, Caroline, that all of them are there. I get that. It's probably not true, but I'm holding onto that hope just as much as you are." He paused, his youthful face somber. "But right now, I'm holding onto the hope that Lexi will survive this even more. Because if we're wrong, if my brother and Elijah's wife and your girlfriend – my best friend…if they're all dead, then Lexi is the only family I have left other than you guys."

Klaus' exterior did not reflect the internal turmoil he was facing. Stefan was like another brother to him, he cared for him just as he did Elijah though he would never admit it out loud. They had each other's backs, always. Stefan's level head was always keeping Klaus out of trouble, and Klaus' recklessness kept Stefan on his toes. They evened each other out well.

"So if you want to leave now, then go. But I'm staying right here with Lexi until she's either recovered or dead." Stefan said bluntly, not bothering to sugar coat the truth. He turned away from Klaus, looking back down at Lexi's sleeping form, brushing back the greasy blonde hair from her sweaty face fondly.

Klaus mulled over his friend's bold declaration. He was at a crossroads now: he didn't know if he should leave in hopes of finding his love, or stay with the loved ones he had with him right then and there.

But of course there was always a third option.

"Elijah, Quarterback, get up." Klaus demanded after a few moments, walking over to where they had their weapons stashed.

Elijah stood up immediately, already having an idea of what Klaus was planning. Matt was a bit more reluctant though, looking at Rebekah in question.

"What are we doing?" He asked slowly.

"We," Klaus started dramatically, tossing Elijah his cutlass which he caught flawlessly, "Are going back to that pharmacy a few miles back to get that medicine Rebekah almost got herself killed trying to obtain a few days ago."

"What?" Rebekah shouted incredulously, standing up quickly, ignoring the fresh dirt on her jeans and scrambling over to the boys. "Nik there were at least ten of those _things_ in that building, and there's probably even more now!"

"I'm fully aware Bekah, I helped save you from them remember?"

"Man the sun is going down in like three hours." Matt said. "Even if we get the medicine, it'll be dark by the time we start heading back here."

"Stefan," Klaus turned, "How long do you think Lexi has left if she doesn't get treatment?"

Stefan stared at his friend, not speaking for a moment.

"A day." He finally said. "At most maybe two, but without penicillin there's no way she'll make it any longer than that."

"Well then." Klaus conceded, looking back to Matt. "I would say that we can't afford to wait until tomorrow morning when she might not even make it through the night."

"I'm going." Rebekah said, making Klaus roll his eyes. He knew it was coming but it didn't make her stubbornness any less annoying. "Don't roll your eyes at me Nik, if you're taking Matt and Elijah I am going. I won't lose my brothers _and_ my fiancée in the same night, I just won't do it."

"Rebekah, you have to stay here and look after Stefan and Lexi." Klaus said firmly, stepping over to his little sister and putting his hands on her shoulders. She was already starting to tear up. "We will be just fine, you're not losing anyone tonight or anytime soon."

"But we never split up, Nik." She cried. "Because if you three don't come back then – "

"We're coming back, Rebekah." Elijah interrupted, stepping over to his siblings, looking at Klaus with a proud expression.

It took a little more convincing, but Rebekah finally agreed to stay with Stefan and Lexi, and the other three boys began grabbing all the weapons they could carry. Just as they were about to leave, Stefan stood up and grabbed Klaus' arm.

"Hey. Thank you." He said sincerely. "I know you probably wanted to leave, but you didn't. So thank you, for helping her."

Klaus wanted to say that he wasn't doing it for Lexi's benefit, but for his own. Stefan wouldn't leave until Lexi was dead or recovered, so he opted for the faster option so that he wouldn't have to sacrifice his group in order to find Caroline. Klaus was desperate to get to her but he also wasn't stupid enough to think he could make it 100 miles without all of them watching his back.

But Klaus didn't say that.

"You're family, mate." He said honestly, putting his hand on Stefan's shoulder and looking him in the eye. "And family sticks together."

#######

_"__Wait, let me get this straight." Caroline said as she leaned back in her chair, spaghetti plate empty. "Your brother Kol came after you with a baseball bat just for borrowing his car one night?" She asked Klaus incredulously, who was next to her with his arm over the back of her chair._

_"__Well Niklaus is leaving out several details of the story." Elijah interjected from across the table before Klaus could say anything. "It was also Kol's very first car, a birthday present from our parents, and then Niklaus very nearly totaled it."_

_"__Klaus!" Caroline shouted, rounding on her boyfriend._

_"__Oh calm down love, it was all just a misunderstanding." He said coyly, smirk never leaving his face. "My vehicle was in the shop at the time and I had somewhere very important to be. It was Kol's brotherly duty to let me borrow his."_

_"__And it had nothing to do with the fact that Kol had a brand new Ferrari that you were incredibly jealous of." Rebekah said sarcastically from her perch on the counter, Matt leaning back in between her legs, arms resting on her thighs. They had shown up for spaghetti night about ten minutes after the boys, unannounced as per typical Rebekah fashion._

_Klaus scowled, shooting his sister a glare to which everyone just laughed._

_"__Well damn, Klaus. The worst thing I ever did to Stefan was maybe the time I shot off a bunch of firecrackers in his treehouse and set it on fire." Damon said with a smirk._

_"__Hey, I built that treehouse by myself when I was 13 years old, you're damn right I was pissed." Stefan pointed at his brother, making everyone laugh again._

_"__Right Damon, _that's_ the meanest thing you did." Katherine sneered, bringing her wine glass back up to her lips. "It's not like you stole the first girl he loved for yourself or anything." _

_Everyone fell silent, and Elena's face turned bright red. Katherine lowered the wine glass and looked around at everyone innocently._

_"__What?" She asked._

_Elijah tapped her hand with his own and leaned over to whisper something in her ear to which she just rolled her eyes. The awkward tension was stifling, poor Stefan looking down at his lap and Damon glaring at Katherine venomously._

_"__So," Caroline suddenly said loudly, making everyone look at her bright expression, "You said your brother Kol lives in Chicago now?"_

_Klaus cleared his throat. "Yes. He left the family business about two years ago. Decided that art dealing wasn't quite his forte."_

_"__He's a journalist now." Rebekah added with a proud tone, wrapping her arms around the front of Matt's torso from where she sat behind him. _

_"__Really?" Elena asked, wanting to become a writer herself. "Who does he write for?"_

_"__He's a baseball critic for the Chicago Tribune."_

_"__Hey does that mean he can get me free tickets?" Matt asked, making Rebekah roll her eyes and smack his shoulder to which he just chuckled._

_"__Our youngest brother is quite secluded from the family now." Elijah spoke up. "After he left, we stopped hearing from him as much. But the last I heard he has a girlfriend whom he lives with now in an apartment near Wrigley Stadium."_

_"__Elena, doesn't your Aunt Jenna live near the Stadium too?" Caroline asked._

_"__Yeah I think so."_

_"__She's like a mile or so away from there I'm pretty sure." Katherine added, ignoring Elena's glare as she spoke, Elena obviously still upset about her sister's earlier quip._

_"__We could totally meet Kol when we go to Chicago next month!" Caroline said excitedly, eyes wide as she turned to Klaus._

_"__Wait what?" He asked. "You're going to Chicago?"_

_"__Yeah, I told you that like a month ago, don't you remember?" At Klaus' expression she rolled her eyes. "Next month is Elena and Katherine's Aunt Jenna's birthday. Jenna was like, our cool older sister when we were teenagers. So we're going out there to surprise her. Her husband Alaric is going to pick us up from the airport and everything. You seriously don't remember me telling you that?"_

_Klaus shook his head no. "When did you tell me?"_

_"__The night that we went and had dinner with that client of yours from Australia and his wife."_

_Klaus chuckled then, looking down and shaking his head. "Well darling the reason I don't remember is because I didn't listen to much of anything you said that night. I was too busy staring at you in that little blue dress you were wearing."_

_Caroline tried to be annoyed, but when he said things like that she just couldn't be._

_"__I think that was like, thirty percent a compliment and seventy percent insulting." Stefan said, making Caroline turn to him and narrow her eyes playfully._

_"__Nah, I give it twenty-eighty." Matt added teasingly._

_Suddenly everyone around the table started throwing out numbers to which Klaus shouted at all of them to bugger off, that he was charming as hell. _

_Caroline didn't say anything else, just leaned back in her chair and smiled at everyone. This was her family. It didn't matter that Katherine and Elijah were getting married in a couple days, or that no one there was blood related to her, or that Matt was her ex. None of that mattered. These people, gathered for their weekly spaghetti night in her tiny little apartment, they were her family now. And having these people that she knew would always have her back made her one of the happiest girls in the world. She was content._

_And that feeling only intensified when Klaus reached over and laced his fingers through hers instinctively as he argued with Katherine per usual, just wanting to feel her skin on his._

_Oh yes, Caroline Forbes was definitely content._

######

"Elena!" Caroline screamed, yanking her knife out of the now-dead Infected's chest and throwing it without hesitation at the Infected that was on top of Elena, holding her down and trying to bite at her face, Elena screaming for help and pushing him away best that she could.

The knife pierced through the side of the Infected's skull, killing it instantly. It fell off of Elena, who scrambled away from it, breathing heavily. Caroline ran over and helped her friend to a standing position before reaching down and retrieving her knife, wiping the blood off on her pants leg.

"Are you okay?" She asked her friend, putting her hands on Elena's shoulders. "Elena, look at me. Are you alright? Are you scratched, bit –"

"No, no, I'm fine I promise." Elena said breathlessly. "Caroline, he didn't get me, I promise." She assured her.

Caroline was quiet for a moment, staring at her friend to see if she was telling the truth.

"Okay." She finally conceded, stepping back and looking around the abandoned warehouse they were in.

The two girls had wandered in a few minutes ago looking for somewhere to stay for the night, the rest of their group also divided into groups of two doing the same thing, Damon and Alaric, Kol and Bonnie, Jeremy and Katherine. Damon usually teamed up with Elena, but since they were currently in an argument, Caroline and Alaric had switched out. Only Damon and Elena could find something to fight about during the apocalypse.

The warehouse had seemed clean at first, and the girls were five seconds away from going back out and calling for the others, when three Infected jumped down from the ceiling rafters and ambushed them. The girls took out one each easily, but the third one jumped Elena just as she was finishing off the second.

"Elena! Elena!" Damon was shouting, running into the warehouse with Alaric hot on his tail. "We heard you screaming, what happened?"

"_They_ happened." Elena sighed, gesturing to the three dead Infected around them.

"Ambushed us." Caroline said simply, kicking the dead body beside her. "It's like they're getting smarter."

Damon pursed his lips, looking around before settling his deep blue eyes on Elena and putting her face in his hands. "From now on, you and I are together, okay?" Elena nodded with a weak smile, putting her hands on Damon's wrists.

Caroline scoffed. "Gee thanks, Damon."

"Hey, I don't mind," Alaric said, shooting her a grin, "It means I get you back on my team."

Suddenly, Kol, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Katherine came busting in as well, crossbows and swords raised.

"We heard screaming!" Bonnie said, scanning the surroundings.

"Elena are you okay?" Katherine ran over to her twin, pushing Damon out of the way and checking her over.

"I'm fine, Kat."

"Yeah I'm fine too, in case anyone was wondering." Caroline said exasperatedly, sheathing her knife and walking towards the exit to go get their gear they'd left outside on the street while they scoured the buildings.

"Oh come now darling, no need to make a fuss." Kol said in his typical arrogant tone. Caroline came to a stop next to him, turning her head to glare. "We all know you're the most vicious person here. You can take care of yourself just fine, can't you?"

Caroline froze, her face falling. She glanced behind her at her group of friends. No, not friends, fellow survivors. That's what they were now, survivors. That's it. And she knew that Kol was right despite how annoying it was to admit that. She was vicious, ruthless even. More so than any of the others.

"Yeah." She said bluntly, looking back to Kol's dirty yet still handsome face. "I am. And that's why I'll probably outlive you."

Without waiting on a response, she strode towards the exit and flung open the heavy door, but not before hearing Kol mutter, "And you lot say my brother loved her for her optimism?"

As soon as the door slammed shut behind her, Caroline bent over with a sharp exhale of breath, putting her hands on her knees as she started to shake with held back tears. It was just too much sometimes, doing the same thing every single day. Wake up, do a head count, start walking, make sure no bandits decide to target them and steal their stuff, find a hideout, try not to get killed or infected. Repeat the next day.

When The Outbreak first happened Caroline was helpless. She couldn't fight, she couldn't kill anyone. She was Caroline Forbes, she saw the good in everyone. But there isn't any good to be seen in a murderous zombie.

So after scraping by for the first couple of months solely depending on everyone else to protect her, she finally had had enough. Every day between walking breaks and at night if they had a safe hideout, she would train. Her body hardened, she got strong, capable of defending herself for once. And her heart hardened as well. She couldn't afford to cry over Klaus every night because if she did that, an Infected would kill her and she would never get the chance to see him again. So she stopped thinking of him altogether the best that she could. It didn't help that Kol was with them and constantly reminded her of Klaus with his snarky attitude.

But she did it anyways. Now she could hardly remember his face sometimes, which was ridiculous because she had studied every inch of his body a million times over, she knew it better than her own. And yet time can do that to someone. Pain can, too.

Standing back upright and pulling her hair out of her ponytail, Caroline shook off her momentary weakness and began striding over to where they had hidden their packs underneath an old station wagon along the street. Fortunately there weren't any other survivors in this urban area they had found themselves in. Sometimes other survivors were just as dangerous as the Infected. They couldn't trust anyone but each other.

Her heavy combat boots thudded against the broken and overgrown pavement, eyes constantly scanning her surroundings. The sun wasn't all the way down yet but it would be in about half an hour.

Once she got to the car, she bent down and reached under it, pulling out her own rucksack. All she had in it was a sleeping bag, some cans of food, and three or four bottles of water. Once she had it in her hand, she pulled it out and stood back up.

She only noticed the figure behind her when she saw their reflection in the driver's side window.

"Ah!" Caroline screamed, dropping the rucksack and whipping out her knife all in one fluid motion.

She slashed at the person's stomach which they easily dodged. With her arm extended, the figure grabbed her wrist and twisted just hard enough to make her cry out in pain and drop the knife. Using her opposite leg, Caroline placed her foot behind the person's leg then pushed him with her free arm. As they stumbled backwards and tripped, she ripped her arm free and spun around him, getting them in a headlock, her hair flying around her face.

Before she could carry out her intention of breaking the stranger's neck, they lifted their foot and kicked backwards with a grunt, hitting her shin. As her hold was broken they spun around and pulled out their own knife, shoving her backwards against the car and holding it against her throat.

Caroline froze at the feel of the cool blade against her skin, swallowing in fear. Wait, an Infected would have killed her by now, not be holding her at knife point.

Finally looking up at the attacker, she realized it was a man. A very much non-Infected man with a sharp jawline, thin lips, and messy brown hair. His brown eyes held a ferocity to them, but she could tell that there was some kindness in him somewhere.

"You're normal." She whispered, awed that it wasn't an Infected like she had thought the whole time they were fighting.

His eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Well that's not something I've heard very many times." He said in a thick British accent, making her heart pang.

"No, no, I mean…you're not Infected." She clarified.

"Ah, correct you are. I am in fact not a flaky, red-eyed monster. And neither are you. So if I remove this blade from your pretty little clavicle, are you going to try and slice open my small intestine again?"

Caroline gulped, sensing that even though this man had a teasing tone to his voice, he meant business too.

"No." She finally said.

He stared for a minute, his eyes piercing hers before finally lowering his weapon and taking a couple steps back. Caroline let out a deep breath, relaxing her shoulders and blinking a few times. The man bent down and picked up her rucksack, holding it out to her. When she hesitated he rolled his eyes.

"Relax, gorgeous. I just let you go when I could have slit your throat. I think that's a sign of truce."

Caroline sighed and grabbed her rucksack from him quickly, making him chuckle.

"Well you're a feisty little thing aren't you? Out here all by yourself?"

"No." She said immediately, glaring at him. "My friends are nearby and trust me, one of them is very handy with a crossbow."

He held his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I see. Don't worry love, I'm not here to try and steal your things or take your…innocence." He glanced up and down her body, lingering on her curves with a smirk. "I'm just a man trying to make it through the night and unfortunately, the group of three I've been travelling with the past month was ripped to shreds by some Infected last night."

"How do I know you didn't kill them yourself?" Caroline asked.

"You don't." He replied immediately, the corner of his mouth turning up in a smirk. "But I get the feeling you're one of those girls that can read a man's entire life story just with a single look. You know, the kind that sees the best in everyone."

Caroline stilled, her anxiety increasing as he hit the truth right on the head.

"And since I let you live when I very well could have slit your throat and stolen your things, I'm hoping you can see the good deep, deep down in me and maybe let me bunk with your group in that warehouse I saw you come out of." He said sincerely.

She didn't say anything for a few moments, just studied the man. He was about Damon's height, wearing blood stained jeans and black boots, a black shirt and leather jacket. She couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like he had about three knives on his person, and she thought she caught a glimpse of a gun in the back of his jeans when they were fighting. His face was gaunt, like he hadn't eaten in a few days, but he still had muscle. His face was grimy, but she could still tell he was very handsome. Overall, he was worse for the wear.

She sighed, already knowing what she was going to say.

"I'll have to introduce you to everyone else and let them get a read on you." She said bluntly, crossing her arms. "But since we're about ten minutes from sundown and I don't particularly feel like being responsible for you getting ripped to shreds by some Infected, I'll pitch it to them."

The man smiled, starting to say something else, but Caroline held up her hand.

"And you're gone in the morning. We have enough in our group already and we both know that trusting people you don't know isn't an option if you want to survive. So don't get too comfortable, _if_ they even let you stay. Are we clear?"

The man grinned, eyes bright. "Crystal. Do you have a name, love?"

"First of all, do _not_ call me love." She said harshly, thinking to herself _'only one person is allowed to call me that.'_ "And secondly," she continued, "My name is Caroline."

"Well, pleased to meet you Caroline."

He smiled mischievously, extending his hand. She took it, albeit reluctantly. His handshake was firm, but also gentle. Caroline knew he meant business and could be very dangerous, but she could tell that he had no desire to hurt any of them. At least not at this point.

"The name's Enzo."

######

**A/N: Read and review please! xoxo**


	4. Chapter 4 - California Rolls

**Chapter 4 – California Rolls**

**A/N: Intense chapter! Remember to review please!**

**####### **

_"__Caroline come on, I haven't seen you in days." Stefan complained over the phone from his office as Caroline rolled her eyes walking down the busy streets of New York._

_"__Stefan Salvatore, are you openly admitting to missing me?" She teased._

_"__Yes, Caroline Forbes, that's exactly what I'm doing." He shot right back, spinning around in his chair in his very lavish corner office courtesy of Mikaelson Arts. "We haven't not seen each other for more than a few days since we were in sixth grade, so I refuse to let you bail on lunch _yet again_ just because you're twitchy over Klaus."_

_"__I am not twitchy!" She shouted into her phone, coming to a stop at a crosswalk along with several other people. "I just don't like your boss's stupid arrogant face. Or his stupid arrogant attitude." She scowled, hoisting her messenger bag higher up on her shoulder, heavy with books from her morning classes at NYU. _

_She heard Stefan sigh. "How many times do I have to tell everyone that he's not my boss?" He mumbled._

_Caroline laughed, knowing Stefan hated it when people said that. He was very defensive over his job title since the whole group had given him such hell for leaving Damon's law firm a year ago, before they became friends with Elijah (through Katherine's very scandalous relationship with him of course)._

_She started to walk again, her straightened hair whipping around her face from the harsh January winds._

_"__Look Care, we've been having lunch at my office twice a week for the past year and you never even saw Klaus that whole time. What makes you think now will be different?"_

_"__Um because he's obsessed with me since that Christmas party a couple weeks ago?" Caroline fired off, her facial expression showing her discontent despite the fact that Stefan couldn't see her. "_

_"__Oh would you look at that." Stefan said sarcastically. "Self-obsessed, neurotic Caroline from high school is back!"_

_Caroline rolled her eyes, grinning. She was the first to admit that her first three years of high school were rough on her, she had pretty been a narcissistic bitch. _

_"__Oh shutup! I'm not being conceited for once okay, he really won't leave me alone. It's been two weeks and it's like he's everywhere I go now! I have lunch with Katherine, Elijah surprises her, and Klaus just _happened_ to come along. Elena and I go to The Grill to drop off some stuff for Matt, and he and Rebekah are there."_

_"__Oh no." Stefan said in mock astonishment. "It's like he's stalking you."_

_ "__Right!"_

_"__I mean really, what kind of man goes to lunch with his brother, or checks up on his sister and her boyfriend that he doesn't know anything about? He sounds like a maniac."_

_"__Stefan!" Caroline whined, making him laugh._

_"__Okay, okay, I'll stop. But seriously, Klaus isn't even in the building right now, I'm on my lunch break, and I miss my best friend. Hey if you come now, I'll even order us sushi. On me."_

_Caroline slowed her walk a little bit, the rest of New York buzzing past her. She bit her lip, thinking._

_"__Will you get me a California roll?"_

_"__I'll get you two."_

_She grinned, laughing and pulling her dark blue pea coat tighter around her as she sped up towards Stefan's office. _

_"__Alright fine, you convinced me. I'm two blocks away, see you in a few."_

_"__Love you!"_

_She chuckled. "Love you too, you goofball." She said before hanging up and pocketing her phone._

_Shivering, Caroline hurried down the sidewalk, sidestepping around tourists and smiling at people who made eye contact with her just to confuse them. Moving to the city after living in little old Mystic Falls for the majority of her life had been a major culture shock to Caroline, but she thrived here. NYU was a perfect school for her, her apartment was just the right size for her and Katherine now that Elena had moved out and was living with Damon, and her paid internship at Vera Wang was a godsend financially._

_The past two and a half years here had been a dream. Up until stupid Klaus Mikaelson and his stupid charmingly British self had decided he was intrigued in her. _

_Stepping up to the thirty story building that housed Stefan's office, she said hello to the doorman Jeff and walked inside, her high heeled boots clacking against the linoleum floor. The building's lobby was fairly empty so she was the only person to step into the elevator, pressing the button for Stefan's floor._

_The steel doors closed and Caroline let out a breath, excited to see Stefan now that she knew Klaus wasn't in the building. That would've been awkward._

_As the elevator approached the third floor, still ten floors away from Stefan's office, it stopped and the doors opened to let someone else on. And lo and behold – _

_"__Alright Maddox, I'll get those numbers to Finn and let you know what he thinks. Until then, just make sure the client stays happy, send him a fruit basket or something."_

_"__You have got to be kidding me." Caroline whispered in complete and total disbelief._

_Klaus turned away from Maddox and towards the elevator, eyes lighting up when he saw the blonde haired beauty behind the doors._

_"__Caroline." He said brightly, that smirk that seemed to always be on his face making her grit her teeth. "I'm starting to get the feeling that you're following me, love."_

#######

"So. _Enzo_. How did you end up here at our humble abode?" Damon started off with a snarky tone, fake smile in place as they sat around in a circle in the warehouse.

Katherine was lying on her back seemingly asleep with her head in Elena's lap, who was leaned back against her rucksack trying and failing to do the same. Kol and Jeremy were looking around the warehouse for more things to barricade the doors with just in case what they had already used didn't hold for some reason. Alaric and Damon were both sitting across from Enzo on overturned buckets with their elbows on their knees interrogating him, and Bonnie and Caroline were on the ground sharing a blanket and listening from their spot beside Alaric.

"I've been scouting for about a month with three blokes who were ganked by a group of Infected last night. I got out, they didn't." Enzo said simply, not bothered at all by everyone's mistrust of him.

"Scouting?" Alaric asked. "What does that mean?"

"It means that we were sent to find people to bring back with us where we came from." Enzo replied, propping his leg up on the bucket next to him.

Damon immediately kicked the bucket out from under his leg, making Enzo glare.

"Uh-uh, no. You don't get to be comfortable until we get full answers." He sneered. "What the hell does all that mean? Where did you come from?"

Enzo sighed, rolling his eyes and leaning forward.

"Have you ever heard of Whitmore?" He asked in a serious tone.

Bonnie sat up straighter. "Whitmore? Wasn't that what that Infected was going on about the other week?"

"Oh yeah." Caroline said, looking at Enzo skeptically. "This traveler came up to us a few days ago ranting about how he had to get to Whitmore and needed someone to get him there alive, he was screaming and yelling until – "

"Until she cut his head off because his nose started to bleed." Damon finished bluntly. Caroline just shrugged her shoulders.

Enzo's eyebrows shot up. "Well then, how unfortunate for him. But what the poor bastard was going on about is very much real. About fifty to seventy-five miles east of here is a place called Whitmore. My group and I were from there, tasked in telling people about it."

"What's so special about this town?" Bonnie asked.

"It's not so much of a town as it is a…community." Enzo said, cocking his head to the side and smirking. "A community that is safe from Infected."

All four of them sat up straight at his words, and Caroline even saw Katherine and Elena look up from where they were a few feet away.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Kol shouted from across the warehouse, making everyone turn to look at him and Jeremy. "Could you repeat it, I couldn't quite hear you from all the bloody zombies outside. It sounded like you said you know somewhere safe from said zombies."

"That's exactly what I said mate." Enzo called back to him before lowering his voice and turning to look at Caroline specifically. "Whitmore was built along the Indiana-Ohio border, and has sixty feet high cement walls surrounding the mile wide enclosure. The town is self-sustaining – agriculture, schools, housing. It even has a reasonably democratic government set up."

"No way." Caroline whispered, awed at the idea of being _safe_ somewhere in these times.

"Oh yes way, gorgeous." Enzo said immediately. "There's only about two hundred or so survivors there now, give or take a few. But one of the men in charge, Richard Lockwood, he sent nine of us out to tell any other survivors we could find. It was my group of four, a group of three, and a group of two. My group went west, the three went north, and the two went east. Any survivors they meet get told about Whitmore and where it is. It's up to them if they go or not."

As soon as Caroline heard the word "east" she whipped around to make eye contact with Katherine, who had stood up and was wandering over to them now, eyes wide. When they looked at each other, both were thinking the same thing.

"East." Katherine whispered. "If they survived, they would be heading this way, trying to find us." She said quickly. "They would be travelling quicker with a smaller group, they could be at Whitmore right now."

"Stefan." Damon whispered to himself, looking down at the ground and thinking about the prospect of seeing his brother again.

"Look we don't even know if this guy is telling the truth." Jeremy said loudly, pointing at Enzo.

"I'm right here, mate."

"He could be leading us to a death trap for all we know." Jeremy paid him no mind. "We've all agreed that we can't trust anybody but each other. I say we put him out on his ass and keep doing what we're doing."

"Gee thanks, it's a pleasure to meet you too." Enzo said sarcastically.

"Jeremy, we're not going to leave him to die." Elena said to her brother. "Not to mention that what we've been doing for the past eight months isn't working. Do you really think we could make it another eight months without someone getting killed or Infected? Their number are growing every day and pretty soon ours are going to decline."

"Elena's right, Jeremy." Bonnie said calmly, ever the voice of reason. "If there's even the slightest chance that this Whitmore place could be somewhere safe, maybe even a home at some point, we have to try."

"They're both right." Alaric weighed in. "Those things are getting smarter every day, we can't keep doing what we're doing and expect it to always work. We have to have a goal, and Whitmore could be that."

Jeremy didn't say anything for a moment, scowling before walking away to stand post by the door again.

Elena sighed. "I'll go talk to him."

"So just how exactly did you end up at Whitmore and then get sent away?" Kol asked rudely, coming over to stand behind Bonnie. "I know I wouldn't exactly be willing to leave and go back out into Zombieland."

Enzo glared at Kol only to be met with a similarly venomous gaze. Kol could be ruthless when he wanted to be, which was often. The only time he wasn't so evil acting was when he was with Bonnie.

"Her name was Maggie." Enzo finally said somberly. "She was my girlfriend. We survived together for about three months after The Outbreak, helping the people of Whitmore build the wall. But then an Infected scratched her one night when it managed to break through our defenses." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. The atmosphere in the warehouse was thick with tension. "Just before I shot her in the head she asked me to make sure Whitmore succeeded. So I dedicated myself to it. And now here I am." He smiled through his pain.

Caroline saw Alaric's head drop down, no doubt remembering when he had to do the very same thing to Jenna after she was bitten by an Infected at the beginning of The Outbreak.

It was quiet for a few seconds, nobody knowing what to say. But then Caroline spoke up, doing what she did best and dispelling the awkward tension.

"Okay so hypothetically, say we believe you." She said, looking Enzo in the eye. "Do you just point us in the right direction and say good luck?"

Enzo grinned. "Well gorgeous," She rolled her eyes as he called her that for the millionth time, "I am currently lacking traveling partners so I would be more than glad to escort you lot personally back to Whitmore. That is, if you would allow me the honor." He smiled at her charmingly.

Caroline rolled her eyes. She had plenty of practice resisting the charms of attractive British men.

"How soon can you get us there?" Alaric asked.

"Three days max if we leave tomorrow morning at soon as the sun rises." Enzo said immediately. "That is, if you're up for the journey."

"We're up for it." Katherine said fiercely, jutting out her hip and giving her typical pouty lipped expression that gave her a vicious vibe. Caroline knew that she was hoping Elijah would be at Whitmore. "But if this is some game you're playing," She hissed, stalking towards Enzo and actually making some fear show up in his eyes, "I will personally put a bullet between your eyes. Got it?"

Enzo stared up at her with a mixture of terror and adoration. "Of course."

"We're in too." Elena spoke suddenly, walking back into view with Jeremy at her side who looked slightly disgruntled.

Damon looked around and met eyes with everyone.

"So is that it? Are we all serious about this?"

Everyone looked at each other and nodded. Damon raised his eyebrows and turned back to Enzo.

"Alright then, it seems that we're all on the same page. Welcome to the group, Enzo."

Enzo grinned mischievously, glancing at Caroline out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh the pleasure is all mine."

#######

_"__Seriously?" Caroline asked incredulously as Klaus stepped onto the elevator with her, the doors closing slowly._

_"__What?" He asked with mock innocence, pouting his naturally dark red lips at her. "You seem upset, love. Did you have a bad day?"_

_"__Okay first of all, don't call me love." She all but growled, narrowing her eyes at him to which he just chuckled, pissing her off further. "And second of all, you're the one following me!"_

_"__Whatever do you mean?" _

_"__I mean that you keep –"_

_She cut herself off as the elevator stopped at the next floor and an older man got on, nodding at them. It was awkwardly silent for a few seconds as the doors closed shut again and the elevator started to move. They still had nine floors to go._

_"__I mean," Caroline whispered harshly, "That you keep showing up everywhere I am and it's really annoying me!"_

_Klaus chuckled, ignoring the older man as he looked over his shoulder at the two curiously. _

_"__Caroline I've hardly been showing up everywhere you are. The other day when I saw you at Donovan's it was mere happenstance."_

_"__And what about at Rousseau's when I was having lunch with Katherine huh?" She spat, the elevator doors opening yet again and letting the older man off, but three more people got on. Against her will, she was pushed towards the back corner and closer to Klaus._

_"__Elijah invited me and so I went." He shrugged. "He and your friend Katherine are still fairly early in their relationship and he wanted me to get a read on her."_

_Caroline scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Oh please. And you had no idea that I would be there?"_

_"__Oh I knew precisely that you were going to be there." Klaus said immediately, grinning at Caroline's expression. "That was why I didn't object to Elijah's offer."_

_Caroline sputtered for something to say as the doors opened once more at the floor just below Stefan's – thank goodness – and one of the other men in the elevator dropped his phone as he was walking out. When he bent down to pick it up, his suitcase swung around, almost hitting Caroline in the face. Almost, being the key word._

_Klaus grabbed her by her upper arms, pulling her away from the swinging object and incidentally into his own arms. She yelped at the sudden movement, the business man not even noticing that he came very close to bloodying poor Caroline's nose._

_The elevator doors closed yet again, everyone having gotten off except Klaus and Caroline. They were standing in the middle, Klaus holding onto her arms still, her hands resting gently on his chest. She very slowly looked up and met his eyes, which were full of emotion, none that she could quite pinpoint. He almost looked…afraid, perhaps? No that didn't make any sense._

_Despite his white button down shirt, Caroline could feel the lean muscle underneath, his heartbeat strong yet erratic. His hands slid down her arms slowly, making her shiver despite the fact that she was wearing a coat. Some of her hair was falling in front of her face and Klaus reached up to push it back when..._

_"__Um, am I interrupting something?"_

_Caroline jumped up and out of Klaus' arms at the sound of Stefan's voice, immediately missing his warmth. His hands dropped in disappointment, turning to glare at his friend._

_Caroline paled as she realized Stefan wasn't the only audience she and Klaus had had while in the middle of their awkward yet intense moment just now, not even realizing that the elevator doors had opened. _

_Stefan was standing right in front of them, but behind him Caroline could see Elijah in his office, watching them through the glass with a curious, yet amused expression. But even worse than that was that Katherine was perched on Elijah's desk with her legs crossed and eyebrows raised. When she made eye contact with Caroline she burst out laughing, the sound muffled through the glass but still audible._

_Oh gosh, she would never hear the end of this._

_Caroline knew that her face was probably bright red and she couldn't even bear the thought of seeing how Klaus was handling the situation._

_Looking back at Stefan, she saw that he was biting his bottom lip trying not to laugh himself – and failing miserably. She scowled at him and marched out of the elevator, right past Stefan and towards his office._

_"__You owe me a _hundred_ California rolls, Salvatore."_

#######

"Run!" Klaus screamed as he turned around and rammed his sword through yet another Infected.

"Niklaus!" Elijah yelled, turning and seeing the distress his brother was in.

"Go, 'Lijah, get to the cabin!"

Klaus pulled his sword out of the dead Infected and immediately side-stepped another, spinning around on his heel and cutting its head off in one fluid motion. As the now headless body dropped he looked behind him and saw about five more coming after him, twenty or so yards away.

"Klaus, come on!" He heard Matt yell from the front of the cabin where he and Elijah had finally gotten to.

Klaus growled, wanting to kill every last one of those five Infected but knowing he had to get inside the cabin and barricade it or they were all goners. He turned quickly and sprinted up to the small one-room cabin they had been bunking in, Elijah and Matt behind him, running through the door and immediately grabbing everything they had been barricading the doors with the past few nights: chairs, stones, bags, all of it.

Just as they got all the items against the door an Infected slammed into it, forcing it open a few inches. Klaus heard Rebekah scream in shock behind him but he couldn't afford to turn around and look.

"Push!" Klaus groaned as he, Matt, Elijah, and Stefan all pushed against the door trying to get it shut all the way so they could lock it fully.

The Infected were growling and snapping through the crack in the door and Klaus' feet slid against the wood floor as he pushed with all his might against it. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but was actually just seconds, the door shut and he reached forward and chained all of the locks as fast as he could.

The Infected continued to bang on the door and make inhuman noises, but they were locked out for the time being, there was no way they could get in. The tiny cabin also didn't have any windows so they were safe.

Klaus side stepped the pile of stuff and slid down against the wall, his feet giving out underneath him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, thankful to be alive.

"Are you okay?" He heard Rebekah ask hurriedly, checking over Elijah's well-being then moving on and doing the same to Matt.

"We're fine babe, we're fine." Matt assured her breathlessly, putting his hands over hers as she turned his face side to side.

Klaus just barely opened his eyes to see Stefan walking over and kneeling down in front of him.

"You okay?" He asked seriously, eyebrow furrowed. "Any of you get bit, scratched, anything?"

Klaus chuckled tiredly. "Miraculously, no." He reached into his jacket pocket then and slowly pulled out two syringes, holding them out to Stefan. "Here. That should be enough penicillin."

Stefan took the syringes slowly, almost disbelievingly. He turned them over and read the labels, relief dawning on his face. He looked back up at Klaus and put one hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you." He said, voice wavering with emotion.

Klaus just nodded, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall yet again. He heard Rebekah murmuring to Matt, Elijah sitting down next to Lexi, who was mumbling incoherently. Stefan pulled the protective coverings off of one of the syringes and placed it against Lexi's arm.

"You're gonna be okay Lex." He whispered as he injected her with the penicillin. "You're gonna be just fine."

Elijah inquired about how long it would take for her to be up and moving and Stefan guessed about two or three days until she could walk, which made Klaus smile. He'd waited eight months to see his Caroline, a few extra days of holding on to the hope that he would see her again was something he could handle if he must.

A few minutes passed in silence, excluding the noises the Infected were making outside the cabin. But they were all so used to that by then it didn't even phase them. The zombies would be gone when the sun rose anyways.

"Oh no." Stefan suddenly said, making Klaus open his eyes. Was the penicillin not working?

But Stefan wasn't looking at Lexi for once, he was looking at Matt.

"What is it?" Matt asked. "What's wrong?"

Stefan stood up slowly, clearly upset. "Your jacket."

Klaus looked at Matt, who was turning around to see what Stefan was referring to. Klaus' eyes widened and he jumped up immediately when he saw it for himself.

A bite mark was on the back of Matt's jacket, on the left shoulder. A bite mark that could have only come from one thing.

Matt saw it as soon as everyone else did, and he looked up at them terrified. Rebekah's jaw dropped, her lip quivering as she searched for something to say but couldn't find any words.

Finally, realizing what he had to do, Klaus picked his sword up off of the ground and began stalking towards his sister's fiancée with a terrifying expression on his face.

"Woah, woah man, just hold on!" Matt scrambled away, tripping and falling in the process, scooting all the way back to the opposite wall with his hand held up.

"Nik no!" Rebekah screamed, grabbing her brother's arm and trying to pull him away to which he just shoved her backwards roughly.

"We all know what has to be done!"

"Klaus come on, we need to make sure before we go stabbing him!" Stefan shouted, stepping in front of Matt with his hands out.

"We know how this has to end Stefan! I will not let my chances of seeing Caroline again be jeopardized just because –"

"Niklaus!"

Klaus froze at the feel of a blade against the side of his neck, turning slowly to see Rebekah holding the tip of her own sword against his throat. She was shaking and sniffling, tears running down her face. Elijah was the one who had shouted, seeing that his sister was threatening their brother.

Several tense seconds passed, no one hardly daring to breathe.

"You will _not_," Rebekah began, voice shaking, "kill my fiancée Nik. I won't let you."

Klaus stared at his sister for a few seconds before chuckling darkly.

"Are you going to kill me, Bekah?" He asked in a low voice. "Are you really going to choose him over your family? Him, who will be a raging murderous monster within a few hours?"

He inhaled sharply as the sword started to draw a few drops of blood from his neck, knowing good and well that he was provoking her.

"Rebekah stop this." Elijah demanded, stepping over to his siblings in just a single stride. "No one is killing anyone right now, do you understand? Now lower both your weapons while we figure out what exactly has happened."

"We know what has happened 'Lijah!" Klaus shouted, gritting his teeth at the pain in his neck. "He was bitten, he has to die or we all do!"

"We don't know that!" Elijah shouted right back, voice raised in a terrifying tone. "And until we are sure what has happened or what will happen, we are all putting our weapons _down_."

Neither Rebekah nor Klaus moved for about five seconds.

"Now!"

Rebekah was the first to drop the sword, and Klaus let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding when she did so. Tears were streaming down her dirty, tanned face and she was looking at Klaus like she hated him more than anyone else in the world. Finally, he dropped his own sword as well.

As soon as he did, Stefan stepped to the side and Rebekah ran over to Matt, taking his face in her hands and asking him a million questions at once. Klaus just turned and glared at Elijah, who looked disappointed in him.

Was Klaus the only one who realized what a threat Matt posed? If he were bitten and they didn't kill him, they would all be dead. And Klaus had no plans to die anytime soon.

Turning back to look at his sister, Klaus saw that she was pulling Matt's jacket off, lifting his shirt up to see the bite mark.

The bite mark that _wasn't_ _there_.

"It didn't go through." She whispered in shock, turning back to her brothers, trails in the dirt on her face from her dried tears. "The bite didn't break the skin, his jacket was too thick, look!"

Elijah shoved his way past Klaus and examined the area for himself.

"It's true." He said to Klaus, whose eyes were wide. "He is not bitten. Which means he's not Infected."

Matt visibly relaxed, letting out a huge breath and pulling his shirt back down, hugging the life out of Rebekah, who was crying happy tears now. Elijah stepped away from them and made his way back to Klaus, who was shaking.

Elijah put his hand on his younger brother's shoulder, turning his head to say to him, "Congratulations Niklaus. You almost killed our sister's fiancée for no reason. Imagine what Caroline would have said."

He patted Klaus' shoulder one more time before going back over to Lexi where Stefan was already sitting. Klaus looked back to his sister, who had her forehead pressed to Matt's and had her hands against the side of his neck, shaking as Matt assured her over and over again that he was fine.

Klaus' own eyes glassed over as he thought about Elijah's words. What would Caroline have said had he killed Matt? If she was alive and at Whitmore and found out what he did, she would probably hate him for killing her childhood friend. She would never want to speak to him again.

_No, no, that's not true,_ he thought to himself. He had told Caroline everything about his past, each and every awful thing he had done before he moved to America. He had told her about the revelation of his birth father when he was ten years old and had to have a blood transfusion and Mikael wasn't a match. He told her how he thought about killing Mikael every time the man beat him for reasons beyond his control. He told her about leaving home at eighteen and doing underhanded business deals, getting involved with the wrong people, even going so far as killing the wrong people in order to get a better paycheck.

He told her about how Elijah had tracked him down when he was twenty, dragged him back to America and practically forced him to get his life together. He told her how he had gotten back into the art world through their family owned business, which Elijah had taken over when Mikael had died of a heart attack a year prior. He started painting again, stopped taking so many pain pills, started looking out for Rebekah and Kol like he was supposed to. He got it all together.

Yet he had still felt empty through all of that. Until he met her.

Oh yes, he had told Caroline about each and every one of his misgivings. And he had fully expected her to run away screaming from him like everyone else who knew about his past did – except his family, of course. But she didn't run away. In fact, she stayed right by his side and loved him anyways.

So what would Caroline say about his irrational actions that night? He knew exactly what she would say. She would say that he acted like an idiot, and she wouldn't be wrong about it either.

But the beautiful thing about his Caroline was that she would forgive him all the same. She would always forgive him, which was why he had been trying to be a better man for her since the moment they met, so that she wouldn't _have_ to give him her forgiveness.

Damn he loved that woman. And he was going to find her again if it was the last thing he ever did. As soon as Lexi was recovered, they were going to Whitmore. And if she wasn't there, he would keep searching. Until he saw her body for himself and listened to her heart not beating, he would tell himself that she was alive and waiting on him.

He wouldn't let her down ever again.

#######

**A/N: Review please! xoxo**


	5. Chapter 5 - Let's Go To Whitmore

**Chapter 5 – Let's Go To Whitmore**

**A/N: Klaroline is getting closer and closer to being reunited! Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, make sure to review! **

######

_"__Ugh, just leave me alone already!" Caroline shouted, throwing her phone across the room and onto the opposite couch, incidentally next to Katherine who was curled up with a book in her hand. _

_Katherine looked up from her book with a glare._

_"__Excuse you, that was rude." She snapped._

_Caroline sighed. "Sorry. I'm just so annoyed!"_

_"__About what?" Katherine picked up the phone and looked at the screen, face dawning in realization. "Ah, I see. 4 missed calls and 3 texts from Klaus."_

_"__He won't let it go!" Caroline complained, eyebrows shooting up as she got more and more frustrated. "It's like he has this obsession with me or something, but I know the real reason why he keeps trying to talk to me."_

_"__Oh really?" Katherine drawled. "Do tell."_

_"__He sees me as a challenge. Because I didn't immediately fall for his charm at that Christmas party like a month ago, he thinks he has to win me over to prove himself." She said matter-of-factly, scooting to the edge of the couch and talking with her hands._

_Katherine chuckled, twirling a strand of dark curly hair around her finger lazily._

_"__And it couldn't possibly be that Klaus just, oh I don't know, actually likes you?" She asked sarcastically._

_Caroline pursed her lips in thought. Klaus couldn't actually like her, could he? No, there's no way. She was just some conquest to him. Klaus Mikaelson, the super rich businessman of Mikaelson Arts, with the smooth British accent and crazy hot body, he couldn't possibly like her. Caroline was just a student at NYU, only 20 years old (well, 21 next month) from a tiny little nothing town in Virginia. He couldn't like her._

_"__And are we forgetting that little moment on the elevator two weeks ago that I was fortunate enough to witness?" Katherine asked coyly, bringing Caroline out of her thoughts. "Because let me tell you, I managed to see past that haze of awkwardness and embarrassment, and I definitely saw some real potential there."_

_The girl in question just rolled her eyes and huffed. "Katherine I begged you not to bring that up again –"_

_"__Well I'm bringing it up again anyways." She interrupted sharply. "Look, I don't know Klaus that well, but what I do know I've heard from Elijah and that's a pretty good source. Klaus puts on a show for most people, acts all cocky and confident, and tries to intimidate people. Kind of like yours truly."_

_Caroline couldn't help but shrug in agreement._

_"__But according to Elijah, most of that is just a ruse. He does that to push people away. Apparently the guy is pretty messed up. I think he had a super bad childhood or something, Elijah didn't tell me much."_

_Caroline stilled, leaning back as she absorbed what Katherine was telling her. Klaus was an arrogant jerk, there was no getting around that painful fact. But she hadn't even stopped to think about why he acted that way. She always saw the best in everyone, so why was that so hard for her to do with Klaus?_

_"__I guess I'm saying don't be so hard on the guy." Katherine shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean worst case scenario, you go out with him, decide you don't like him, get a free meal and maybe a little bump and grind in the bedroom, what's the harm?"_

_"__Katherine!" Caroline whined in embarrassment, tossing a throw pillow at her friend and making her laugh._

_"__I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Geez, so touchy." She smirked, going back to her book._

_"__Wait are you reading?" Caroline asked incredulously. "Since when does Katherine Petrova read?"_

_"__Hey, I'm changing my last name to Pierce tomorrow, so stop calling me Petrova." Katherine said firmly, pointing at Caroline._

_"__Katherine! You're changing your name _again_? This is like the hundredth time!"_

_"__Oh stop being so dramatic, it's only the second time." Katherine drawled. "I mean, I love my mom's maiden name and all, but I changed it from Gilbert to Petrova just to piss my dad off, the cheating bastard." She scowled. "So now that I'm starting to make a name for myself around here, I need something with a better ring to it. Katherine Pierce." She said slowly, trying the name out. "Oh yeah, that's much better."_

_"__I'll admit it does sound fierce." Caroline finally conceded. "But I mean if you keep changing your name you might as well go back to being called Katerina since it is your birth name – hey!"_

_The pillow hit Caroline right in the face and when she pulled it away Katherine was pointing at her sternly. _

_"__Do not call me Katerina. I mean it, you know I hate that name."_

_"__Okay, okay, fine." Caroline chuckled. "But back to what I asked, what the hell are you reading?"_

_"__Grapes of Wrath." Katherine sighed, holding it up for her roommate to see. At Caroline's expression she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Elijah suggested it to me, so…whatever." _

_Caroline smirked, easily seeing past her friend's façade of indifference._

_"__So Elijah, huh?" She asked, Katherine snapping her head up. "Things must be going pretty well. Seeing each other almost every day, having lunch at his office, taking his book suggestions. Is it serious?"_

_"__No." Katherine said quickly, almost too quickly. "I'm Katherine Pierce, I don't do serious."_

_"__So you're going to break up with him at some point?"_

_"__There's nothing to break up, Caroline." Katherine snapped. "We're just fooling around, it's not like he's my…" She trailed off, staring into space._

_"__Boyfriend?" Caroline finished for her._

_Katherine froze, slowly looking up at her friend. It was very rare for Katherine to show emotion, but she was chock full of it in that moment._

_"__I'm in too deep, Caroline." She whispered. "I'm in way over my head, and I don't like it. The way that he looks at me, it scares me. Like he sees right through me or something."_

_"__Oh Kat." Caroline murmured, walking over and sitting next to her friend, who immediately leaned into her. "It's okay to like Elijah, hell it's okay for you to maybe even fall in love with him. He's a great guy that is obviously head over heels for you. You deserve to be happy, Katherine."_

_"__But don't you?" Katherine turned the tables quickly, turning to look at Caroline, who was puzzled. "Don't you deserve to be happy too? If you say I should let Elijah in, then why are you not doing the same thing with Klaus?"_

_Caroline's eyes widened as she took Katherine's words to heart. Her friend was right, she wasn't taking her own advice. Chest constricting in understanding, Caroline realized she wasn't seeing the best in Klaus because she was scared of falling for what she saw._

_"__Give me that phone." Caroline said quickly, reaching over Katherine – who looked quite confused – and snatching the device up, quickly hitting the call button on the most recent listing._

_"__What are you doing?" Katherine hissed, but Caroline just held up her hand in a signal to be quiet._

_The phone rang two times before he picked up. He didn't say anything at first and Caroline's breath caught in her throat._

_"__Caroline?" He asked slowly, making her inhale sharply. "Is that you?"_

_She froze for a moment, Katherine nudging her arm and waiting expectantly._

_"__Yes." She finally said quickly. "It's Caroline. And I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me."_

######

Caroline hitched her rucksack further up her shoulders as the group entered the last two mile stretch of the day, walking through fairly open fields of dead grass. They were on their third and supposedly last day of travel – according to Enzo – and they were trying to beat the rain that everyone could feel was coming. Rainy days were always terrifying because clouds meant the sun wouldn't be shining, and no sun meant plenty of Infected out and about during the day.

Everyone was exhausted – walking thirty miles a day was no easy task when they usually covered only about fifteen to twenty. Elena looked dead on her feet as she walked next to Damon, practically leaning on him, and Bonnie was in a similar shape with Kol. Jeremy and Alaric were trying to keep their tough guy act up but the bags under their eyes and their slow gait said otherwise.

Katherine and Caroline were another story entirely though. They wore expressions of determination, refusing to let the wear and tear bring them down. Caroline was at the front of the group, walking with purpose, Katherine a few paces behind her.

And then of course there was Enzo. Enzo had decided as of late that he was completely and utterly fascinated with Caroline. Nobody could really tell if he had romantic intentions or not, but he wouldn't leave the girl alone. At that moment he was walking next to her, easily matching her stride as he pestered her with relentless questions.

"So you wanted to make clothes?" He asked incredulously, his accent seeming like it got thicker every day.

Caroline sighed, looking straight ahead. "I wanted to _design_ clothes, not make them."

"Ah I see, how silly of me not to note the difference." He remarked sarcastically. "So, NYU, eh? How'd you end up there from all the way down in Virginia? You said you were from a place called Mystic Falls or something, right?"

"Yepp." Caroline said shortly. "I got a brochure in the mail from NYU, applied, got in, and moved there. Exciting story, huh? Now can you please be quiet for like two seconds?"

They heard Katherine snicker behind them and Enzo looked over his shoulder to glare.

"You know you should be nicer to me Caroline. After all I am leading you – quite heroically I might add – to Whitmore without asking for anything in return."

"Oh please!" Caroline scoffed. "You would have been dead in a day if it weren't for us! If anything, you _owe_ it to us to take us to Whitmore." She could practically _feel_ the arrogance oozing from his person.

"You know I am curious as to why you and Miss Scary Hair back there – " He looked back to Katherine, who shot him daggers with her eyes, " – are so eager to get to Whitmore. Am I missing something?"

It was quiet for a few seconds, the only sound was the wind and everyone's heavy feet crunching over the dead grass.

Finally Katherine sighed dramatically. "My husband." She said bluntly. "I'm hoping he'll be there. He was in New York during The Outbreak and would have started heading west towards Chicago if he survived. I'm hoping he heard about Whitmore too."

Enzo glanced down at Katherine's left hand, noting the tanline from the missing wedding band.

"I had to trade it a couple months ago for some food." Katherine said sadly.

"What was his name?" Enzo asked. "I know the majority of the people at Whitmore, maybe I've heard of him."

"Elijah Mikaelson." She said, hope lacing her voice despite her best efforts.

Enzo thought for a moment, slowing down his pace so he could better look at Katherine.

"No, I don't think I've ever heard of him." He shook his head, and Katherine's shoulders visibly drooped. "But I've been out scouting for months, and my friends Rose and Trevor were the ones scouting east where your husband would've been. If they met up with him then I'm sure he would've started making his way there as well."

"What about Stefan Salvatore?" Damon shouted from the back of the group, where he had an arm around Elena and was supporting most of her weight. "You ever heard of him?"

"No, sorry mate." Enzo shouted back. "But none of you lot need to worry, word of Whitmore is finally getting out. I'm sure your loved ones are on their way there now, if they're not already there."

Caroline cocked an eyebrow at Enzo's sincere tone, surprised that he wasn't being sarcastic or snarky for once. He caught her eye and gave her a look.

"What?"

"Nothing." She said. "Just surprised that you're being…decent."

"Excuse me?" He asked in mock offense. "I'm always decent, I haven't said a cross word to you since we met."

Caroline laughed, but it was forced. "No, but you've been pestering the hell out of me."

"Well that's because I find you interesting. Truly!" He defended himself as Caroline looked at him it disbelief. "You act all tough and gruff, but I think I can catch a few glimpses here and there of the girl you were before The Outbreak."

"Oh really?" Caroline asked bitterly. "And who do you think that girl was?"

"Kind." He said immediately. "Heart of gold, saw the best in everyone, never ran out of second chances. Terrified to love, but once you did, you put your entire soul into it."

Caroline almost came to a complete stop, the rest of the group other than she, Enzo, and Katherine still several yards behind them. She looked at Enzo with a fear-ridden expression, scared that he was hitting her old self's personality so accurately.

"And I would bet my life that you were the kind of girl that no one could say a cross word about because you were just so damn nice to everyone." He added before leaning closer to her face and lowering his voice to an almost whisper. "So tell me, what made you turn into this vicious zombie-killing person you are now? Hm?"

Caroline was frozen to the spot, staring into his dark brown eyes, feeling like he could see right into her very soul.

"Oh just tell him Caroline." Katherine finally spoke, tearing her gaze away from Enzo. At Caroline's dazed expression Katherine just rolled her eyes and turned to their guide. "My husband's brother is her boyfriend."

"Katherine!" Caroline shouted indignantly, annoyed that she was bringing _him_ up.

"And Kol is Elijah's other brother, that guy right there." Katherine pointed at where the group was approaching them, concern written on their faces. "We were in Chicago while Elijah and Klaus – her boyfriend – were in New York. We've been trying to get back to them since."

"And my baby brother too." Damon spoke up as everyone reached the trio. "Stefan would be with Elijah and Klaus if I had to guess."

"Don't forget about Lexi." Elena said in a weak voice. "Stefan wouldn't have gone anywhere without Lexi."

"And Elijah would have our sister Rebekah." Kol said in a serious tone, expression hard. "And probably her fiancée Matt."

"Who is mine, Katherine, and Caroline's good friend." Elena added somberly.

Enzo's eyes were wide as he looked around at the group in its entirety.

"Well then." He muttered. "You lot certainly have quite the twisted family tree."

He looked back to Caroline, who was staring down at the ground with an unreadable expression.

"But I promise that I will do my best to get you all back to the people you love." He said sincerely. Caroline looked up and met his eyes, sensing that he meant what he said.

She mustered the weakest smile she possibly could, and received a smile from him in return as well.

The group started to walk again, Jeremy and Alaric taking the lead when Enzo pointed the direction they needed to go in. Katherine squeezed Caroline's hand once before walking ahead and joining them. Damon, Elena, Kol, and Bonnie looked at her sympathetically as well as she stayed back and brought up the rear, much slower than before.

"I'm sorry." Enzo finally spoke after about five minutes of awkward silence, making her look up at him. "For pestering you so much. It's just that you remind me so much of her. Of Maggie." He looked off into the distance, face full of emotion as he thought about his lost love.

"Is that how you got my personality so right?"

He chuckled. "Yes. Maggie was a lot like you. Well, a lot like who I think you used to be." Caroline nodded. "She was so caring, always putting others first."

"Yeah, that sounds like old Caroline." She murmured to herself, looking down at the ground.

"Hey." Enzo said softly. "You're still that Caroline. If I, a complete stranger, can see that she's still in there then you can certainly get back to her. You just have to believe it."

Caroline looked up and met his eyes yet again, seeing the sincerity in them. For the first time in a long time, she smiled genuinely.

"Hey! Guys!" Jeremy suddenly shouted back, making everyone get on the defensive.

Enzo and Caroline both ran up the hill past the rest of the group to where Jeremy and Alaric were pointing at something.

"What the hell is that?" Jeremy asked worriedly, putting to a big gray wall that looked to be about a mile and a half off.

"That," Enzo said with a wide grin, "Is Whitmore."

######

_Klaus cursed under his breath, scowling as he threw his phone onto the bar in front of him. He picked up his glass of Bourbon and tossed it back, hissing at the familiar burn._

_"__Something wrong, Niklaus?" Elijah asked from his left, lifting his own glass to his lips in a sophisticated manner, posture rigid whereas Klaus was hunched over the bar with disregard._

_"__Yes brother, do tell us what's got you so troubled." Finn asked from the other side of Klaus, making him roll his eyes. "Don't tell me it's that girl from the Christmas party again."_

_"__Oh shut it, both of you." Klaus grumbled, toying with his now empty glass._

_"__It is her, then!" Finn laughed, shooting Elijah a look over Klaus' head. "Why I don't think I've ever seen Niklaus so bothered over a woman before, Elijah. Annoyed that she didn't fall at your feet like all the other ones, brother?"_

_"__Finn leave him alone." Elijah scolded, a fond smile on his face. "I think it's healthy for Niklaus to have to work for a woman for once."_

_"__I am doing no such thing." Klaus grumbled, sitting up straight and signaling for his sister's boyfriend Matt, coincidentally the owner of the bar, to come over and refill his glass. "Caroline seems to despise me, and I would like to know why, that is all."_

_"__And it has nothing to do with how extraordinarily beautiful and kind she is?" Elijah asked sincerely._

_"__Come now 'Lijah," Klaus said in a teasing tone, "What would your dear Katherine think of you saying such things about her best friend?"_

_"__Wait what?" Finn asked as Matt filled his glass as well. "Katherine and the girl Niklaus is trying to woo are friends?"_

_"__And roommates." Elijah added. "And I assure you Niklaus, Katherine is very much aware of my feelings for her, she has nothing to worry about. You on the other hand are the one who needs assistance in wooing Caroline."_

_"__Yes." Klaus murmured, looking up at Matt for a moment before straightening up. "Donovan." He startled the boy, smirking at his frightened expression. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you not used to date the lovely Caroline Forbes?"_

_"__Uh," Matt stammered, looking between the three brothers of his girlfriend, all of them incredibly intimidating, "Y-Yeah, we dated in high school for a year then for about another three months when I moved up here to the city."_

_"__What happened?" Elijah asked, sipping his drink casually. _

_"__Well I uh, I met your sister actually."_

_"__Our little sister was your other woman?" Finn growled, leaning forward menacingly, making Klaus and Elijah smirk._

_"__No, no!" Matt rushed to say. "I broke up with Caroline before I even went out with Rebekah, I never cheated. I couldn't do that to Caroline, she's the nicest girl in the world."_

_"__So tell me Mr. Donovan," Elijah began, "What kind of a girl is Miss Forbes?"_

_Klaus turned his head to glare at his older brother only to be completely unacknowledged. _

_"__Uh, Caroline is a planner. She thinks everything through, down to every last detail. She can be kind of neurotic sometimes, but she's matured a lot since moving away from Mystic Falls."_

_"__And what if one were trying to…" Klaus began, trailing off and scowling at his own need of help, "…woo her?" He finally spat out. "How would one go about that?"_

_"__Wait are you – are you trying to date Caroline?" Matt asked, leaning on the bar with the corners of his mouth turned up._

_"__You know what, forget it, this is ridiculous." Klaus spat, standing up to leave, but Finn and Elijah each put a hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down in his seat._

_"__Go on, Donavan." Finn encouraged, leaning his chin in his hand. "Answer the question."_

_"__Uh, well, you can't…woo her." He said, fearing what Klaus might do to him next. "Caroline is the kind of girl that comes to you. If you like her, let her know, but then you just gotta wait and see if she acts on it herself. If you keep bugging her, she's going to push you away."_

_Klaus looked down at the bar, fists clenched. What was wrong with him? Being reduced to asking dating advice from his little sister's bartender boyfriend. It was downright embarrassing. _

_"__Look, I gotta get back down to the other end of the bar, but I'll get back to you guys later." Matt nodded to the three brothers before walking away._

_"__Fantastic." Klaus mumbled sarcastically. "Caroline has already decided that she doesn't care for me whatsoever and now I haven't a chance."_

_"__Niklaus –"_

_"__No 'Lijah." Klaus cut him off, standing up and pointing at his brother. "See this is why I don't try to do the feelings nonsense. It may work for you with Katherine and Finn with Sage, but not for me."_

_Elijah fell silent at his brother's words, sighing in disappointment. And just as Klaus reached to grab his phone and make a quick exit, it began to ring._

_"__Well would you look at that." Finn said slowly after they all looked at the Caller ID. _

_Klaus' eyes were wide and disbelieving as he read the name. He looked between his brothers briefly before quickly snatching up the phone and answering it._

_"__Caroline?" He asked disbelievingly. Had Katherine taken her phone and was playing some sort of prank? "Is that you?"_

_It was silent for a moment and Klaus' heart dropped._

_"__Yes." Her bell like voice rang out, making the corner of his mouth turn upwards. "It's Caroline. And I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me."_

######

"For the last time Stefan, I'm fine." Lexi said with a fond smile as they walked along the abandoned interstate, cars littering the cracked and overgrown pavement. "I just have to walk a little slower, but I don't need to stop every five minutes."

Stefan looked disbelieving as he travelled alongside his friend, worried for her well-being. The penicillin had taken care of the bacterial infection sooner than they anticipated, just two days after administering it. She was weak, but when they told her about Whitmore, Lexi insisted that they start travelling sooner rather than later. So it was the second day of their five day journey and they had covered about thirty miles when the exhaustion had really started to show on her. On everyone, really.

Everyone except Klaus and Elijah that is. They wore grim faces of resolve and determination. Matt was keeping an eye on Rebekah, and Stefan was making sure Lexi didn't pass our or get dehydrated. But the two brothers were the forefront of this expedition, that much was obvious. They led the way, weapons constantly in hand. The group had only run into three Infected thus far, easily taken out. There was a group of five or six travelers they had passed the day before though that had eyed their belongings greedily, but one glimpse of Klaus' cutlass and they went on their way without another word.

Klaus and Elijah were both thinking about the women in their lives as their feet pounded the pavement, it was what kept them going. It had been eight months since The Outbreak and this was the first time they had ever really had any hope to cling onto.

Klaus kept playing a scenario in his head of walking through the walls around Whitmore and seeing that familiar head of blonde hair, calling her name, almost falling to his knees when her familiar blue-gold eyes would meet his. Elijah was thinking something similar, just with his own dark-haired, stubbornly feisty beauty.

Fortunately for everyone though, Lexi was back to her normal self – well, what could be defined as normal for Lexi. They had all taken her constantly positive attitude for granted since The Outbreak, only realizing how much it kept everyone a little bit lighter on their feet when she got sick and wasn't able to be so cheerful all the time.

"I know you're fine Lex, I'm just worried that this is too much on you." Stefan murmured, her arm looped through his as they walked so as to take a little bit of the effort off her. "You were basically on your death bed a few days ago and now we're making you walk twenty plus miles a day."

"Yeah, to get to Whitmore!" She countered excitedly, grin taking up her dirty tanned face. "Stefan, we're going somewhere safe. Somewhere we don't have to worry about getting eaten by a terrifying monster whenever the sun goes down. We won't have to hide in cars at night, or break into people's houses. We can get back to normal!"

"Yeah I don't think being enclosed in sixty foot high cement walls is really normal, Lexi." Matt called out over his shoulder from where he walked with Rebekah hand-in-hand.

"Well it's as normal as you can get during the apocalypse." Rebekah grumbled, nudging his shoulder with her own, smiling. Ever since the other day when Klaus tried to kill Matt, she hadn't left his side nor even so much as looked at Klaus.

"Well I am willing to walk until I feel my feet fall off if it means we can be somewhere safe, and hopefully see everyone again." Lexi said with a content sigh, squeezing Stefan's arm. "Think about it Stef, Chicago is closer to the Indiana-Ohio border than where we started off in New York. If they all started heading towards us like we were heading towards them then – "

Lexi paused as she and Stefan stepped over a dead body on the road.

"– then they could totally be at Whitmore right now!"

"Well I'm hoping that as much as you are Lex, but I'm not putting all my cards on the table." Stefan said. "That's best case scenario. If they're not there though, then maybe someone there has heard of them or knows where else they could be."

"True." Lexi sighed, looking up at Stefan with her prize winning smile. "And if that's the case, we'll keep looking for them."

Stefan looked down and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close and kissing her forehead fondly.

"Damn I hope they're there." Matt said, mostly to himself. "Caroline, Elena, Katherine, all of them."

"Hell I even miss Damon." Lexi said, shocked at herself. "I would kill to hear one of his stupid innuendos right now."

"And we can't forget about Kol." Rebekah looked back. "I remember texting him the night of The Outbreak and telling him that Caroline and Katherine were in Chicago and wanted to meet him, maybe they were together when everything happened."

"Yeah, maybe so." Matt said, grinning at her optimism.

"I do wonder how Finn and Sage are." Elijah wondered out loud, speaking for the first time in a while. "The last time I spoke to him was a week before The Outbreak and he was in Manchester with Sage and the baby."

Everyone got quiet, each thinking about how terrifying it would be to not only have to protect yourself and your significant other from the Infected, but a baby as well. Rebekah was especially silent.

"I'm sure they're fine." Klaus said roughly. "Finn was always capable of taking care of himself, and we both know Sage could – "

Klaus cut himself off and everyone turned at the same exact moment, drawing their weapons at the sound of horses coming towards them.

"Quick, behind that van." Elijah whispered, and everyone immediately complied, Stefan helping Lexi rush behind the nearby vehicle.

The group of six crouched down behind the van, Klaus peering through the windows to see who was coming. A makeshift carriage that looked like it was thrown together much too quickly was being drawn by two horses and coming towards the road from the thin forestry alongside it. There seemed to be a man and a woman in it, and the back end of the carriage was pulling some supplies.

As the carriage came closer and slowed down, they were able to make out voices.

"…nobody over here, Liv."

"I'm telling you, I saw them! It was a big group, right here on the road."

"Sure you did, just like you thought those Infected the other night were a nice family that could need help."

"Well excuse me Luke, sorry I have a heart and want to help any other survivors I can."

"Whatever. Well since we're already stopped can I have a pee break? Or are there any other mysterious invisible travelers you need to stop and help?"

"Oh screw you, Luke."

The two people in the carriage looked to be teenagers, maybe in their early twenties at most. The girl had incredibly curly blonde hair and her jeans and shirt were torn all over. She was thin, too thin, like she hadn't eaten in a long time. The boy was the same way, they looked to be siblings. He had floppy blonde hair as well, facial hair rampant.

Klaus and his group observed them through the windows of the van unseen, and the girl jumped down to check on the horses while the boy walked over by a car in front of the van, his back to the group as he pulled down his zipper and started to relieve himself.

Klaus glanced back at Elijah, who nodded, already knowing the plan. Klaus unsheathed his cutlass silently, stalking up behind the boy without a sound so that the girl wouldn't hear him from where she stood about fifteen feet away.

"Make one move without my permission, and I remove your head from your body." Klaus said menacingly, making the girl scream as she looked up to see her brother at the receiving end of a blade.

While Klaus had been stalking up to the boy, Elijah had crept around the other way and snuck up behind the girl. Just seconds after Klaus, he had his own blade at her throat, making her scream yet again as he pulled her body against his chest.

"Take whatever you want, just take it." The girl pleaded, looking down at Elijah's blade in terror. "Please, just don't hurt me or my brother."

"D-Dude let me at least pull up my pants." The boy stuttered.

"You'll be allowed to zip your fly when you tell us who you are." Klaus smirked, obviously in his element.

"I'm Luke Parker, that's my sister Liv." He spat quickly, gulping as the blade dug into his skin.

"And why were you so interested in finding us, hm?" Elijah asked, smiling his pearly whites and looking both charming and terrifying.

"We're trying to help people." Liv replied to the man holding her, mustering some bravery in her voice. "I thought I saw people on the road and we just wanted to see if we could help."

"Who says we need your help?" Klaus hissed.

"Nobody." Liv shot right back. "But we're offering it all the same."

"Look we're not thieves." Luke said. "We're just travelers okay, our parents were killed a few months back and we're all each other has. We're trying to go to a safe place we heard about a few weeks ago, about seventy or eighty miles from here. It's called –"

"Whitmore." Stefan finished for him, stepping up towards the boy. "You guys know about it?"

"Yes." Liv said, letting out a breath as the blade against her throat slackened. "That's where we're going now."

"So are we." Matt said.

"We can help you get there!" Luke scrambled, zipping up his pants and adjusting himself quickly as Klaus very graciously released him. "You can ride with us, it'll take two days off your journey."

Klaus scoffed, starting to say something when Rebekah suddenly stepped up to him and put her hand on his arm. He was so startled that she had approached him he turned around with a shocked expression.

"Nik we should go with them." She whispered hurriedly.

"Bekah they are practically children." He said back to her under his breath. "Not to mention we don't even know if they're telling the truth. They could be Infected for all we know!"

"And if they are then we will deal with it then. But right now, we need to make good time to Whitmore before we walk right into the rain. Not to mention Lexi is still recovering!"

Klaus sighed, looking back at the rest of the group. His sister was right, Lexi was still incredibly weak despite her best efforts to appear otherwise. And as they got closer to Whitmore the cloudier it was becoming. Fortunately the sun was still shining through, but pretty soon it wouldn't be. And that meant the Infected would be paying them a visit out in the open, where they would have nowhere to run.

He looked back at the twins, who were standing next to each other now, Luke making sure Liv was alright.

"What do you want in return?" He called out to them, getting their attention. "For safe passage to Whitmore, what do you want?"

"Um…nothing?" Liz replied. "We just wanna help, okay? Obviously your friend is sick, and you guys look exhausted. The rain is coming soon and trust me, running from those things is a lot easier when you have a horse drawn carriage at your disposal, no matter how crappy it is."

"We can help each other out." Luke added. "We have transportation, you guys have weapons to protect us with in case we get attacked."

"They make a fair point Niklaus." Elijah murmured, looking over at his brother. "It seems to be a good offer for both parties."

Klaus thought for a moment, meeting the eyes of everyone in his group. They were all exhausted, emotionally and physically, Lexi especially. _Oh what the hell_, he thought to himself. Worst case scenario they kill the teenagers and use their carriage for themselves.

"Fine." He conceded. "Let's go to Whitmore."

######

**A/N: Review pretty please! Just a few more chapters until Klaroline reunites! xoxo**


	6. Chapter 6 - Word Travels Fast

**Chapter 6 – Word Travels Fast**

**A/N: I just wanna say a quick thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you all really motivate me to keep writing this! And if you're keeping up with Final Destruction and haven't reviewed yet, send me your thoughts! I'm always open to constructive criticism, ideas, and I might even give away some spoilers for plot twists to come if you send me your theories ;) thanks for reading, enjoy the chapter!**

**######**

_"__Katherine! Katherine I swear to God if you are putting on more eyeliner I will personally – "_

_Caroline froze as she rounded the corner at the base of the stairs only to see her friend sitting on the bottom step, her white dress flared around her as she sat with her head in her hands. Caroline crept forward slowly, her black high heels clacking against the floor loudly echoing throughout the empty mansion._

_"__Kat?" She asked cautiously. "Are you okay?"_

_Katherine snapped her head up quickly, shocking Caroline with a rare display of emotion, tears welled up in her eyes._

_"__Do I look like I'm okay?" She asked sarcastically, chuckling sadly. "I'm a mess Caroline. Look at me! It's my wedding day and I am an absolute wreck."_

_Starting to shake with sobs she refused to let out, Katherine put her head back in her hands._

_"__Oh Kat." Caroline murmured, walking over and sitting next to the bride-to-be, careful not to step on her pristine white dress. "You're not a mess. Well, you're hair is a little messed up, but – "_

_"__Caroline!"_

_"__I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She assured with a laugh, content when she saw Katherine mustering a weak smile. "You look beautiful. More so than usual of course. Elijah's going to pass out when he sees you walking down that aisle."_

_Katherine didn't say anything, choosing to look down at her hands and play with her fingers._

_"__You are walking down the aisle, right?" Caroline asked slowly._

_The girl in question took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, chuckling bitterly._

_"__I don't know, Care." She said honestly. "I just…I'm not ready for this! I'm not ready for marriage! Hell I can hardly commit to a hairstyle, how the hell am I supposed to commit to another human being for the rest of my life?"_

_"__Well it's not just any human being, Katherine. It's Elijah, you love him."_

_"__Yes, I do." She agreed instantly. "I love him so much which is so wrong of me. Elijah is so kind, he's so…good. And I'm the complete opposite of good. I'm not compassionate, I put my own needs above everyone else's."_

_"__That's not true – "_

_"__Yes it is Care!" Katherine interrupted harshly, staring at her friend. "I'm selfish in every aspect of the word."_

_"__But you're not selfish with him." Caroline said sternly, taking her friend's hand in her own and looking her right in the eye. "Katherine, being happy doesn't make you selfish. In fact, allowing someone else the privilege of loving you is one of the most selfless things you can do."_

_Katherine was silent, bottom lip quivering._

_"__Thank you, Caroline." She finally whispered, reaching forward and wrapping her friend in a tight hug, which was immediately returned._

_When they separated Katherine took a deep breath, pulling herself up off of the bottom step and looking into the mirror on the wall beside them._

_"__Well then, you were right. I guess cold feet really did mess up my hair."_

_Caroline laughed, happy to see her friend back to her normal catty self again. _

_"__Here, let me fix it."_

_Katherine stood still except for the occasional biting of her lip while Caroline put her hairpins back into place. She looked diving, her wedding dress strapless and cinched at the waist where it flowed out behind her in a beautiful lace pattern. Her makeup was heavy, as always, but she looked stunning and fierce, also as always. Once Caroline finished fixing her hair, it looked perfect, up in a comprehensive updo with small curled tendrils framing her delicate face. _

_"__Oh yeah." Caroline said matter-of-factly, looking Katherine up and down. "Elijah is totally gonna pass out when he sees you."_

_Katherine smirked. "Well he better, or I'm turning around and walking down the aisle again to make sure I get the right reaction. But hey look at you! Klaus is going to be the one having a hard time controlling himself."_

_Caroline rolled her eyes, looking down at her own modest pink maid-of-honor dress, her hair in light curls. Katherine was adamant about none of the bridesmaids trying to outdo her, the spotlight was to be hers and hers alone. And Caroline was only the maid-of-honor because Elena was walking Katherine down the aisle, their father not invited to the event._

_"__Yeah, yeah, whatever." Caroline mumbled. "Come on, Katherine Pierce soon-to-be Mikaelson. Let's get you to your wedding ceremony." She said brightly, looping her arm through Katherine's._

_"__Katherine Mikaelson." The bride said slowly, testing the name on her tongue and grinning. "Oh yeah. I like the sound of that."_

######

"State your full name please."

"Katherine Pierce-Mikaelson."

"And where are you from Miss Mikaelson?"

"It's _Mrs_. Mikaelson." Katherine spat at the man taking her information inside Whitmore. "And I'm originally from Mystic Falls, Virginia. Resident in New York City, but was in Chicago during The Outbreak."

When the group had made it to the outside of Whitmore's walls, they were immediately met by about ten men with automatic weapons that looked ready to kill. Once Enzo had convinced the patrols that they were clean, one of the leaders of the town, Richard Lockwood, had come out and cleared them all.

Once inside the walls, they and their belongings were thoroughly checked by a team of nurses to see if they were Infected or had brought anything that could pass on the Infection. Normally, the majority of them would have pitched a fit about the blatant violation of privacy, but they were all too busy being so completely entranced by what they saw within the walls.

Whitmore was astounding. There were several buildings, a few modest houses, stands set up all along the dirt walkways with fruit, vegetables, and buckets available for the well in the center of the enclosure. Children were running around playing, classes were being held outside, there were benches along the pathways where couples were sitting and enjoying the day together. Horse drawn carriages were coming in and out of the walls at their leisure with hunting parties bringing back their kills, supplies from who knows where, gathered grain from the fields nearby. And every time someone came inside the walls they were checked for Infection.

Once the group went through their own wellness check, Richard Lockwood's wife Carol introduced them to the community. They would each be assigned a small room in one of the housing buildings, two people in each room. Obviously the two couples would room with one another, and then it was Jeremy and Alaric, and Katherine and Caroline together.

The Lockwoods were allowing them all three days to settle in, but by the end of the week everyone had to find a way to contribute to Whitmore. Whether that meant teaching, nursing, farming, or hunting, it didn't matter. But in order to use the community's resources, they had to pay their dues.

Now, as the sun was going down, they were each individually talking to a different town leader, giving them their personal information just for the sake of knowing population, life experience, that kind of thing.

"Look, I just need you to look up one person." Katherine pleaded yet again with the man in front of her, annoyed that he wasn't just doing what she asked. "His name is Elijah Mikaelson, he's my husband and I just –"

"I'm sorry ma'am." He cut her off, making her annoyance skyrocket. "I'm not at liberty to give you that information."

"Not at _liberty_?" She asked incredulously. "We're in the freaking apocalypse, what does liberty have to do with anything? Just tell me if he's here or not!"

The man looked around nervously, Katherine was obviously making him anxious.

"Miss Pierce – "

"_Mrs_. Pierce!"

"Sorry, _Mrs_. Pierce, even if I wanted to help you, I can't. I don't keep this information, once I finish with the questionnaire I hand it off to the Lockwoods to keep in the community's records. However…" He trailed off. "I _can_ tell you that I've been checking people in like this for the past three months and I don't remember anyone with the last name Mikaelson. I'm sorry."

Katherine gulped, gritting her teeth to keep her face void of emotion.

"Oh. Well. Thanks for nothing." She murmured, spinning on her heel and walking over to Caroline, who was looking up at the walls in awe.

"Can you believe this?" Caroline asked quietly as Katherine slipped up beside her. "Can you believe that this wall right here is capable of keeping us alive at night? That we can all go to sleep without holding a knife under our pillow?"

Katherine chuckled. "Oh I'll still be sleeping with my knife." She said bluntly, looking behind her. "Some of these people creep me out. They're too…nice."

"Yeah well, when the only human contact you've had besides us in the past eight months has usually been with people trying to kill us, I guess kindness can seem a little creepy." Caroline looked at her with a smirk.

Katherine eyed her friend with a confused but also amused expression.

"What's with you?" She asked slowly. "You're acting all…not homicidal."

Caroline laughed yet again, surprising Katherine even further. She hadn't laughed like that in ages.

"That's because I'm not. Homicidal, that is. I mean look around us Katherine! We're here, this place is…it's real! No Infected can get in, and we don't ever have to go back out if we don't want to! I don't know I just…"

She trailed off, turning back to look at the bustling community fondly. Seeing people walking without knives in their hands, or rucksacks on their back, and no flaky skin or red eyes in sight, it stirred something inside her. She saw Damon holding Elena's hand and pointing at one of the vegetable stands, making her laugh hysterically about something. Kol and Bonnie were leaving the check in station together and Kol picked his girlfriend up by the waist and spun her around ecstatically. Jeremy was bent down next to a little boy that was asking about his tattoos, and Alaric was talking to some woman carrying a bucket of water.

They all had their shoulders relaxed, their weapons were safely sheathed, they looked…safe. And that was something Caroline hadn't seen in a long time.

"Over the past eight months," Caroline began to say, "I refused to think about…Klaus, for one very specific reason. If I started to think about him, I would never stop. I would worry about him and where he was and if he was alive more than I would worry about watching my back for an Infected, or making sure I had _your_ back from an Infected. I couldn't afford to be distracted, so I stopped thinking about him completely."

Katherine nodded, understanding what Caroline meant.

"But now that we're here," She continued, "It's like…I don't have to not think about him. I can remember him and now that I am…I'm remembering myself too."

Katherine smiled fondly at her friend.

"That's good, Care, that's really good. You know for a while there I thought you were trying to steal my title of fiercest bitch this side of the Mississippi River." She smirked.

Caroline laughed yet again.

"Oh I would never. Oh by the way, Enzo told me that he had to go meet up with someone, but that if I wanted to find out if Klaus or Elijah or really anyone we know is here, to go talk to Mr. Lockwood, that he would help."

"Great! Let's go find him now." Katherine said instantly. "We can – "

"Katherine! Caroline!" Elena shouted, jogging over to the girls. "Hey, they're showing us to where we're staying now, come on."

"Actually Elena we're going to – "

"No." Elena cut off Caroline with a wave of her hand. "I just told Damon and Kol both that we're going to go to where we're staying, wash the dirt off our face, and brush our teeth with real toothpaste before we go looking for anyone."

Katherine started to object to her sister but was silenced as well.

"We have been barely surviving for the past eight months." She said seriously. "I know you two want to find out if Klaus and Elijah are here as soon as possible the same way that Damon wants to find Stefan and Kol wants to find all three of his siblings. But it's _my_ job to take care of _you_ guys. Now come on, just give me a couple of hours to make sure you guys don't have things growing in your hair. Please?"

Katherine and Caroline looked at each other for a few seconds and sighed dramatically, nodding their head and following Elena to where they would be staying that night and indefinitely thereafter.

The rooms were modest, as was expected, it wasn't the Ritz after all. Even inside the safest place in America, it was still the apocalypse. The buildings were more like two story huts, side by side, with paper thin wood walls. Each room had a square hole for a window, and the cots were thin and looked to be army issued. But not a single person complained because it was an actual bed to lay on at night.

A few kind women who had been at Whitmore for a while brought the girls some buckets of water and homemade soaps for shampoo and body washing. They were also given new clothes, a couple pairs of jeans and t-shirts apiece that they were in charge of washing and air drying for themselves.

When Caroline finally finished scrubbing all of the grime from her skin from head to toe, had washed her hair, and dug out the crusty dirt and blood from under her nails, she felt like an entirely new person. She looked at herself in the cracked glass in their makeshift bathroom (really it was just a small tub and a latrine they had to empty themselves), she couldn't believe what she saw.

She looked…dare she say, normal. It felt like she were looking at herself after a long, hard day of classes and not a long hard eight months of fighting zombies. Granted, she was much tanner than she had ever been, the bags under her eyes were outrageous, and she had lean muscle where she used to have more curves. She didn't look the _same_, but she certainly didn't look so different anymore.

When she had finished changing into one of her new sets of clothes and throwing her hair up into a ponytail, Caroline looked back to ask Katherine where they should start first only to see her friend laid out on her cot out cold. Caroline chuckled, she must have laid her head on that pillow for two seconds before she fell asleep. She considered waking her up to go looking for Richard Lockwood with her, but Katherine needed the sleep. Well, so did she, but she couldn't do that until someone told her whether or not Klaus was inside the walls.

She made her way out of the small room, chuckling when she saw Damon and Elena, and Kol and Bonnie each asleep in each other's arms as well in their respective rooms. Alaric and Jeremy weren't in their designated room, and she assumed they were out talking to the patrol force, both having expressed an interest in keeping the walls safe from Infected.

When Caroline stepped out, she was met with the brisk early October night air and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The sun was just starting to go down, and a habitual pang of anxiety shot through her chest before she realized that she was going to be okay tonight, she didn't have to find anywhere to hide because she already _was_ somewhere safe from the Infected.

The dirt pathways around the community were still fairly busy, people walking around greeting each other, trading plants and other items, eating dinner outside, those kind of things. If she didn't know any better, Caroline might think she was back in Mystic Falls.

But she did know better, so she set off to the nearest person she saw, which happened to be a woman who seemed in her late thirties that was checking on tomatoes in one of the small garden plots.

"Excuse me," Caroline said kindly, making the woman look up at her with a smile, "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of Mr. Lockwood."

"You're new, aren't you?" The woman asked.

Caroline nodded shyly. "Yeah, my group and I got in today."

The woman smiled even wider, seeming genuinely kind. "Oh well don't fret too much sweetie, I was overwhelmed my first day too. But don't worry, it'll become home soon enough. Sometimes I even forget the zombies exist until I hear them at night."

Caroline's smile dropped a little bit, the woman's statement setting her on edge for some reason.

"But the man you're looking for is right over there, unloading that carriage."

Caroline looked in the direction the woman pointed, seeing a group of three men pulling bags of feed from a carriage. If she had to guess, it had just got in from looting a store somewhere in the vicinity. The man she had pointed to had on a red long sleeve shirt and was wearing faded wash jeans, his back to Caroline.

She thanked the woman briefly before walking over to the men with determination in every stride.

"Mr. Lockwood?" She asked, shocked when the man turned around to face her, seeing that it was definitely not the same man that had greeted them outside the walls earlier. "Wait, you're not Mr. Lockwood."

The guy chuckled, wiping his hands off on his jeans. He was attractive, a sharp jawline and messy dark hair, so dark it was almost black. His eyes were dark as well, his face tan, broad shoulders and defined muscles.

"Well that depends on which Mr. Lockwood you're looking for." He said with a grin and a cheerful tone. "There's three Mr. Lockwoods in Whitmore. My Uncle Mason, who is head of patrol around here. My dad Richard, who is probably who you're looking for if I had to guess. And then me." He extended his hand with a warm smile. "I'm Tyler, Tyler Lockwood."

"Uh, hi." Caroline said slowly, cautiously accepting the handshake. "I'm Caroline Forbes."

"You from the group that just got here?" He asked, chuckling when he saw her accusatory glance. "Yeah, sorry about that. Word travels fast around here. You came in with Enzo, right?"

"Yeah." Caroline replied. "But he disappeared as soon as we got here, I don't know where he went. But he told me that Mr. Lockwood – your dad, I guess – he told me that he could help me find someone that I'm hoping might be here."

"Well firstly, Enzo is probably with Dr. Maxfield, there's no telling when you'll see him again."

Before Caroline could ask what Tyler meant, he kept talking.

"And secondly, my dad could tell you if someone is here or not because he knows the name of every single person inside these walls. But fortunately for you," He smiled yet again, showing off his perfect teeth, "So can I."

"Really?" Caroline asked disbelievingly.

Tyler chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets and kicking his feet at the dirt.

"My dad, my mom, and my uncle were with the original group of people who started to build the walls. I've been here since the very beginning, so trust me. I know the name of everyone who has come inside Whitmore and the name of everyone who has left and not come back."

She cocked her head at Tyler, studying him. He seemed genuine enough, and didn't have much reason to lie to her.

"Alright fine." She finally said. "Klaus Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson, Stefan Salvatore, Lexi Branson, Matt Donovan. Any of those names sound familiar?"

Tyler slowly shook his head, pursing his lips.

"Nope, none of those people are here. Sorry."

Caroline swore under her breath, turning on her heel and putting her hands on her head, trying to keep the tears at bay. She should've known better than to put too much hope in the one to a hundred chance that all of her loved ones were there. They were all most likely dead, or even worse, murderous Infected.

"Where were they from?" Tyler asked sympathetically, making Caroline look over her shoulder at him. "Only our scouts that went west and north have come back, so if they were east of here – "

"They were." Caroline interrupted him quickly, spinning on her heel and taking a step closer to him. "They would have been heading this direction from New York City."

"Oh, then they would have probably ran into Rose and Trevor." He said. "They haven't gotten back yet, maybe your friends on their way."

"Yeah, maybe." Caroline whispered, looking down at her feet.

"Hey." Tyler said softly, making her glance up at him. "Don't give up hope. I know that's easier said than done, but Rose and Tyler are our best scouts no doubt. They went south a few months ago and brought back twenty-eight survivors, which doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me it is." He smiled. "So keep your head up. Maybe the next group that comes in will be all of your friends. I've seen tons of happy reunions around here, yours could very well be next. Until then just try to acclimate to Whitmore. Have you gotten a job yet?"

Caroline laughed, looking up at the pink and purple splattered sky from where the sun was going down.

"No, not yet."

"Well what did you do before The Outbreak?"

"I was in college. A fashion design major. Lame, right?"

"No that's not lame at all." Tyler said instantly, surprising her. "I mean, I was living at home because I lost my football scholarship for drinking, so you were doing better than me."

Caroline laughed despite herself, which brought yet another smile to Tyler's face. It was disconcerting that she had made him smile so much in such a short amount of time after just meeting him.

"I don't know what I'll do." Caroline said honestly. "Maybe teach? But I'm not really good with kids." She bit her lip in thought before looking back up at him. "Oh! I know, I used to volunteer at the hospital back in my hometown when I was in high school. I could do like nursing maybe? Do you guys have anything like that?"

"Yeah, we have a clinic beside the well where they do basic bandaging up and stuff like that. But actually," he crossed his arms and rubbed his chin, thinking. "I'm pretty sure Dr. Maxfield needs a new nurse in his lab."

"Lab?" Caroline asked incredulously, chuckling. "You guys don't have running water but you have a _lab_?"

"It's…you'll have to see it to believe it." Tyler said offhandedly, confusing Caroline further. "But I can take you to talk to him in the morning if you want?"

"That'd be great." Caroline said genuinely. "Sunrise?"

"Yeah, sure." He grinned, reaching beside him and throwing the last bag of feed over his shoulder. "It's a date." He said with a raise of his eyebrows before walking away from her before she could get a word in edgewise.

Two questions immediately ran through Caroline's mind. 1) Did Tyler say that as a teasing quip, or was he serious? And 2) why the hell did the name Maxfield sound so familiar?

######

_"__Should I go and check on her?" Elijah asked worriedly for what felt like the hundredth time in the past fifteen minutes. "I should go check on her she might be – "_

_"__Elijah." Klaus grumbled, grabbing his brother's shoulder and pulling him back to the altar next to where he, Finn, and Stefan were standing in their tuxedos as groomsmen. "Katherine is fine, she'll be coming out any second now, just relax."_

_Elijah attempted to comply, straightening his suit coat even though it was already perfect like always. Klaus wanted to laugh at his big brother, never having seen him so flustered before. But it was his wedding day after all, as ridiculous as it was to admit._

_Never in a hundred years would Klaus have pictured his big brother Elijah getting married to a woman like Katherine Pierce, he the picture of sophistication and she the epitome of 'wing it.' They were like night and day: calm and collected versus wild and stubborn. And yet at the same time, Klaus couldn't see Elijah marrying anyone else other than Katherine now that he had seen them together._

_But weren't he and Caroline the same way? Night and day; where he was cruel she was kind, where he was hardened she was soft. They balanced each other out perfectly._

_"__Psst." Klaus suddenly heard, looking up from the ground and at the double doors that led into the plantation home where the ceremony was being held outside of. He couldn't help but grin when he saw Caroline poking her head out and trying to get his attention. "Tell the band to start playing." She mouthed._

_Klaus chuckled and winked at her, earning a smile in return as Caroline disappeared into the home again. He turned behind him and signaled to the string quartet to begin playing, Elijah looking at him in confusion as he did so. Klaus said nothing, just straightened his posture with a smirk as the music began._

_The double doors opened slowly, everyone quieting where they had been having idle conversation waiting on it to start (of course Katherine would make everyone wait for her own wedding). The first person to walk down the aisle was Sage, just starting to show her baby bump and wearing a light pink dress that went horribly with her red hair. Katherine's doing on purpose no doubt, she wasn't a big fan of Finn's wife._

_Finn met Sage halfway, taking her arm and escorting her down the rest of the aisle, the two of them separating as they reached the front. _

_Next was Rebekah being met by Stefan and she looked like she was trying not to laugh for some reason or another, Klaus didn't want to know. _

_And finally, the maid of honor stepped out._

_She looked radiant. That was the only way to describe Caroline in that moment, positively radiant. Her dress was a darker pink than the other bridesmaids, and she wore high heels to accentuate her already long legs. Her makeup was light, her lips a glossy shade of pink that made Klaus thank whoever had invented the damn stuff she was wearing on them. Her hair was curled around her face and he just wanted to run his fingers through it as he kissed her senseless._

_As Klaus began walking up the aisle towards her, never breaking eye contact, she winked at him and he could have fallen to his knees right there. He knew it was technically Elijah's big day, getting married and all, but Klaus would swear up and down that he was the luckiest man in the world at that moment._

_Once they reached each other, Caroline looped her arm through Klaus', transferring the bouquet to one hand. They walked down the aisle slowly together, Elijah smiling at the two of them._

_"__You know if I didn't know any better love," Klaus whispered, "I'd say an angel just winked at me at my own brother's wedding."_

_Caroline snickered, biting her lip to keep from laughing out loud._

_"__Oh Klaus." She murmured, turning to face him as they reached the altar. "How many times do I have to tell you that your charm doesn't work on me? Even if I am your girlfriend." _

_Without another word, she leaned forward and kissed him lingeringly on the cheek, spinning on her heel and walking over to stand in front of Rebekah, who was once again trying not to laugh._

_Klaus stood stunned for a moment, looking at the feisty beauty he called his. Elijah cleared his throat and brought him back to the present though, chuckling when Klaus cursed and walked back to his stand as best man._

_Everyone in the ceremony stood from their seats as Katherine emerged with Elena, who was escorting her down the aisle in place of their father. Klaus would admit that she did look beautiful, and Elijah's jaw parted in awe as he stared at his bride-to-be._

_The ceremony went flawlessly, as expected since Caroline had doubled as the maid of honor and the wedding planner. Everyone said the right "I do's" at the right time, no one fell on their face, it went smoothly._

_But Klaus' favorite part was when during the vows, Caroline made eye contact with him across the aisle and mouthed his three favorite words._

_He grinned back at her._

_"__I love you, too."_

######

"We need to keep moving." Stefan murmured as he bent down next to the creek and filled up his canteen. "Those clouds are going to be over us any second now and we're out in the open."

"Yeah well we won't be going anywhere if our horses die of dehydration." Liv shot at him rudely, leading the animals to the water.

Klaus scowled at the young girl from where he stood next to the carriage, leaned up against it with his arms crossed. The twins were disrespectful as hell, and it irked him. They had been travelling nonstop for the past ten hours, the carriage they were in actually making good time. If he had to guess, Klaus would say they had travelled about fifty miles. Which meant they had only about twenty or thirty left to get to Whitmore. To get to the possibility of seeing Caroline again.

"What are we going to do when those clouds get over us?" Matt asked, sauntering up towards Klaus. "We're not near any freeways, there's no cars or empty buildings to try and hide in."

"I suggest we keep moving." Elijah spoke from where he was crouched next to the creek, staring at the water mindlessly, no doubt thinking about how close he was to perhaps seeing his wife again. "With the speed of the carriage we can outrun most Infected, and even if we're not faster we can much better defend ourselves from the wagon."

"Wait you want us to travel through the night?" Luke asked incredulously, jumping down from the wagon himself. "That's suicide!"

"We're travelling through fields of nothing but grain." Rebekah smarted off to him. "There's probably not any Infected around for miles, they tend to stick to urban areas since there are buildings to hide in when the sun is out."

"She's got a point Luke." Liv said to her brother, hooking one of the horses up to the carriage. "The sooner we get to Whitmore the sooner we're safe. We shouldn't waste any more time. Not to mention there's way more of us to fight any Infected off if they do show up."

"Fine, fine." Luke grumbled, holding his hands up and jumping up onto the carriage again, grabbing the reigns with a scowl. "You guys want to travel at night, we'll travel at night, whatever. See if I care. Just remember that I warned you when we – "

The boy cut himself off as everyone stilled, looking up at the sky where a large, ominous cloud was covering the sun, taking away their best sense of protection from the Infected. The sun was their greatest asset, and days where there was cloud cover or rain were the most terrifying days of all. Because those were the days that the Infected had an advantage.

The darkness swept over the field slowly and nobody even dared to breathe. Stefan stood up deliberately, canteen in hand, Elijah mirroring him. Matt clenched his fists and Liv hopped up on the wagon next to her brother.

Klaus stood up straight, jaw clenched firmly. Rebekah was still standing next to him and she reached out and grabbed his wrist, startling him.

When Klaus looked down, he saw Rebekah smiling weakly at him, her tanned face seeming to pale slightly. She was terrified, yet still trying to comfort her big brother, the man who tried to kill her fiancée just a few days ago.

He managed to muster a smile in return, thinking briefly that Caroline would have laughed at his pathetic attempt of cheerfulness if she were there.

"Alright then." Elijah spoke up once the cloud cover was fully upon them. "We need to start moving."

**######**

**A/N: GUYSSSSSS, THE KLAROLINE AND KALIJAH REUNION IS JUST TWO CHAPTERS AWAY! REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN! xoxo**


	7. Chapter 7 - Antidote

**Chapter 7 – Antidote **

**A/N: IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ! So this chapter is CHOCK FULL of really, really important details that come to play in later chapters, especially in Caroline's apocalyptic POV. So if you're one of those people that skims through dialogue, maybe skim a little slower in this chapter. Okay that's all, please remember to review!**

**######**

_"__Surprise!" _

_Elena and Katherine's Aunt Jenna jumped in fright as she stepped into her apartment, only to be met by her nieces, Caroline, and her husband Alaric all dressed in party hats, balloons all over the ceiling._

_"__What is this?" Jenna exclaimed with a huge grin on her face, squealing as the three girls came over and attacked her with hugs. "I thought you guys were in New York and couldn't make it for my birthday! Did you plan this?" She asked Alaric._

_"__Oh no, it was all the girls." He said fondly. "I just picked them up at the airport."_

_"__Aunt Jenna we've missed you so much!" Elena said, still hugging one of her favorite people in the world tightly. _

_"__Guys, you're going to make me cry." Jenna mumbled, wiping under her eyes as Caroline laughed. "This is like, the best birthday present ever!"_

_"__Oh this isn't all of it." Katherine said with a smirk, putting her hand on her hip. "We've got so much booze Jenna, you wouldn't believe – "_

_"__Okay you alcoholic, how about we let her open her other presents before we break out the hard stuff." Caroline teased, ignoring Katherine as she flipped her off. _

_The night went well for the next few hours - lots of presents, lots of laughing, and lots of drinking. Mostly the girls were teasing Alaric since he was the only guy there. _

_When it was about ten at night though there was a knock at the door. _

_"__Who is that?" Jenna asked, to which everyone shrugged. "Did you guys invite someone else?"_

_Alaric stood up and made his way to the door only to open it and reveal none other than Damon._

_"__Damon?" Elena asked incredulously, standing up. "What are you doing here?"_

_"__I came to apologize." He said quickly, striding over to his girlfriend in just a few steps. "Oh and, happy birthday Jenna."_

_Jenna grinned in amusement and waved at him from her seat on the couch._

_"__You flew all the way out here from New York just to apologize for a fight?" Elena questioned disbelievingly._

_"__It wasn't just any fight Elena, you and I both know that. I'm here to say I'm sorry and also so much more." He said softly, raising a hand to caress her cheek gently, his blue eyes full of emotion. "I didn't mean what I said before. You know I see a future with you Elena. It's all I've seen since the day we met."_

_Elena was silent, staring up at her boyfriend of three years with a shocked expression. When the topic of long term commitment ever came up, Damon turned tail and ran at the idea. He loved Elena, that much was sure, but in the days past the topic of perhaps getting married one day had come up and he had said several things he didn't mean, breaking her heart for what seemed like the hundredth time._

_The sweet moment between them was broken though when Caroline and Jenna let out a chorus of "aww"s and Katherine burst out in a fit of drunken giggles._

_Before anyone could tease the couple further though, a piercing siren cut through the air._

_"__What the hell?" Alaric mumbled, going over to look out the window. Suddenly there was an explosion outside that shook the building and everyone jumped. _

_"__What's going on?" Caroline asked hurriedly. "What was that?"_

_"__Turn on the TV." Damon ordered, Jenna jumping up and turning on the flat screen._

_The news came on immediately, an emergency announcement of some kind. There was a news anchor talking on the screen._

_"__For those of you just tuning into this emergency broadcast event, major cities all over the world are facing catastrophe."_

_Another explosion went off outside and the group heard more sirens and screaming from below. Elena was clutching onto Damon, asking him a hundred questions he didn't have the answer to. Alaric had disappeared into a back room as soon as he had heard the explosions, and Katherine was moving closer to Caroline, instantly sobering up. _

_"__What is that?" Katherine asked slowly, watching a crappy definition footage play on the television screen._

_"__What you're watching," the news anchor said, "Is a leaked piece of footage from one of Dr. Wes Maxfield's labs in Atlanta. You may know Dr. Maxfield as the creator of the so called miracle cancer cure. His creation was no cure though. As you can see here, these patients have become zombie like in appearance, and have no cognitive functioning to distinguish who is friendly and who is their enemy. It's almost like they're… infected somehow."_

_"__Here, everyone take one of these." Alaric suddenly spoke, walking into the room and tossing Damon an automatic weapon, which he caught instantly._

_"__What the hell!" Caroline shouted, her voice reaching a ridiculously high octave. "What are you doing Ric? I don't have any idea what – "_

_"__Caroline." He interrupted her harshly, coming to stand right in front of the girl. "I know you're not exactly processing what's going on right now, but there are bombs going off outside. We have to get out of this city right now."_

_"__Jeremy." Katherine suddenly whispered, whipping her head around to Elena. "Jeremy is in the city, he's probably on campus. We have to find him!"_

_"__We will." Ric said instantly. "We'll find him, get in a car and start heading East. But right now we have to leave."_

_Caroline's mouth floundered open and closed. Ten minutes ago they were all laughing about the time Katherine asked their history teacher Mr. Tanner if he wanted to get high with her, and now they were handing out guns, and bombs were going off outside, and all she really wanted was for someone to explain to her what the hell was going on. _

_"__What has put the country in a state of emergency," the news anchor continued, "Is that in almost every single major city that Dr. Maxfield had these zombie-esque patients in has had an escape in the past twelve hours. It was unknown to Maxfield that the Infection could be passed on through direct contact such as biting, scratching, and the like."_

_There was a dramatic pause where the camera zoomed in on the anchor's face._

_"__Ladies and gentlemen. We are is in the midst of one of the greatest worldwide catastrophes the world has ever faced. Martial law has been declared, the government is bombing major cities where these Infected have begun to spread, and your electricity and running water may very well be going out soon. Find your loved ones, find somewhere safe. Safe from what we have dubbed…The Outbreak."_

######

Caroline walked through Whitmore with a bright smile on her face despite the cloudy day. Once she had gotten back to her and Katherine's shared room the night before, she had completely passed out for a solid twelve hours until the sun started to rise. She had dreamt of the New York City skyline and blue eyes and British accents that called her "love."

But then her dream was interrupted when Katherine had shaken her awake asking what she found out about Elijah.

And now she was on her way to meet Tyler from the night before, who was going to take her to see some doctor that needed a nurse or something like that. The whole situation was really vague, and she was still annoyed that she couldn't place where she had heard the name Maxfield from.

The day was bleak, clouds covering the area that would most likely bring them rain in the next couple of hours. Normally that would terrify Caroline, but within the walls she felt safe. Every few hours or so she would hear a few shots ring out and know that one of the patrols had shot down an Infected from a safe distance away. And despite how twisted of her it may be, she always smiled at that thought.

"Caroline!" She heard Tyler call out to her from next to the well, smiling brightly at her. She smiled back at him, but not too much. She didn't want to give this guy the wrong idea.

"Hey, Tyler." She said kindly. "So, off to see Dr. Maxfield?"

"Yeah, his lab is right this way." He gestured towards a small brick building to the right of the well. To the left of the wall was the check in station by the main entrance.

"Okay so who is this guy and why does he work in a lab?" Caroline asked while they walked.

"You don't know?" Tyler responded incredulously, furrowing his brow at her. "You don't remember who Wes Maxfield is? From before The Outbreak?"

"Well I mean his name sounds _so_ familiar, but I just can't place it." She said frustratedly, stepping through the door that Tyler opened for her politely.

The door was really just an entryway to a very creepy looking set of stairs that led underground. Caroline looked over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at Tyler. He laughed at her expression.

"Don't worry, his lab is underground for safety reasons, you'll be fine."

Caroline shrugged and stepped into the building, walking down the stairs slowly, hearing distant voices.

"And trust me," Tyler continued with a bitter chuckle, "You'll recognize who Wes is when you see him."

"…the results were inconclusive, Enzo."

"Inconclusive my ass!" Caroline heard Enzo's voice at the bottom of the steps. "You're the bloody doctor, why isn't she getting better?!"

"Enzo?" Caroline called out as she reached the bottom of the steps and peered around the corner, seeing her guide speaking to – well, more like yelling at – a man with blonde hair in a white lab coat.

"Caroline." He greeted her with a warm smile. "How lovely to see you."

"Yeah, you too." She murmured, looking around the room curiously. It was definitely a lab that much was for sure. There were test tubes and vials and a cooler with dry ice on the floor holding who knows what. She also saw thick steel double doors on the opposite side of the room and she briefly wondered what was behind them.

"Wes, this is Caroline Forbes." Tyler introduced her to the doctor. "She's offered to be your new…nurse."

"Ha!" Enzo barked out a laugh sarcastically. "Caroline really? You want to be a nurse for this bloody arsehole?"

"Enzo, relax." The doctor urged. "She's showing improvement everyday - "

"But she's still Infected isn't she!" Enzo roared back.

"Woah, woah, woah." Caroline said quickly, holding up her hands to make the men be quiet. "Can someone please explain to what the hell is going on, who the hell he is, and why the hell I'm here?"

All three boys were silent for a few moments.

"I'm Dr. Wes Maxfield." The blonde man finally spoke, extending his hand which Caroline shook slowly. "I was a scientist before The Outbreak and I have…experience, you could say, with the virus that makes the Infected…well, infected."

"If that isn't the vaguest statement you've ever said in your life." Enzo grumbled, rolling his eyes as he leaned back against the wall.

"Wait, experience?" Caroline asked. "How do you have experience with the…"

She trailed off, eyes widening as she began to realize.

_'…__You may know Dr. Maxfield as the creator of the so called miracle cancer cure. His creation was no cure though…'_

"Now you remember who he is." Tyler murmured under his breath in a disgruntled tone.

Wes had the audacity to look apologetic as Caroline glared at him, still processing her revelation.

"Now Miss Forbes, I assure you – "

He was cut off as Caroline launched her fist forward and connected it with his jaw as hard as she could, sending the doctor sprawling to the ground.

"Oh damn." Tyler hissed, bringing his hand up to his mouth in shock. Enzo burst out laughing and held up a hand to high five Caroline to which she just glared at him.

Wes groaned from the ground, glancing up briefly at Caroline's still fuming expression.

"You know you would think after that happening about fifteen times since The Outbreak I would be used to it, but it never hurts any less."

"Good." Caroline seethed, stalking towards Wes as he stood up. "You're the reason for everything." She hissed, reveling in the terror that showed up in his eyes. "You're the reason that I had to watch my friend Jenna be shot by her own husband. You're the reason," she shoved his chest with both hands, "One of my friend's doesn't know where his brother is. You're the reason," Another shove, "that I hear my best friend cry every night because she doesn't know if she'll ever see her husband again. _You're_ the reason," Wes was against the wall now and Caroline just inches from his face, "I haven't seen the love of my life in eight months and I don't know if he's dead or alive!"

The room was deathly silent, the only sound was Wes' labored breathing.

"You're the reason for the apocalypse." Caroline said with finality, looking right into his eyes.

Having the decency to look ashamed, Wes looked down at the ground, his jaw already starting to swell.

"I know." He whispered. "Trust me, I know. And now I'm trying to fix it."

"Oh yeah and how is that?"

"By creating a cure." Enzo answered from behind her with crossed arms and a stern expression. "An _actual_ cure that is, one that works. And surprisingly enough, he's been making progress. Slowly."

"Slow progress is still progress." Wes shot at him. "I've designed an antidote to the Infection."

"A cure?" Caroline asked immediately, eyes lighting up in shock.

"No, not quite." Wes sighed. "An antidote is different than a cure. What I've created is only effective if administered within the first six hours of Infection."

"So…that means you can fix them if you get to them like, right after their nose starts bleeding?"

"Precisely." He said with a slight smile.

"Don't stop there." Enzo murmured. "Tell her the rest."

"The rest?" Caroline whipped around to Wes. "What does that mean?"

"The antidote has some…variables, to it." He said vaguely. "If administered in the right timeframe, it can keep the Infection from spreading, no doubt. But it isn't capable of removing what Infection is already in their blood stream."

"I don't…understand." Caroline mumbled, confused.

"Why don't you just show her?" Tyler suggested, making Wes and Enzo both glare at him. "What? She needs to know, she can help."

"Show me what?" Caroline asked. No one spoke for a few seconds. "Show me what?" She repeated, her voice raised.

"Oh fine." Enzo grumbled, walking over and putting his hands on the handles of the steel double doors she had been eyeing earlier. "But just remember, you asked for it."

With that being said, Enzo grunted as he pulled open the doors as hard as he could. Caroline heard what was behind them before she saw, and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

_"__Oh look at who it is! Enzo! Yet again! Can you not take a freaking hint already and just disappear?"_

_"__Dad! How wonderful to see you! I'm surprised you haven't put a bullet in your brain yet. I mean, the whole world wants you to so why don't you just go ahead and do it? Or better yet let me."_

Insults continued being thrown from the people behind the two jail-like cells. In the left was a young man with blonde messy hair, dirty and gaunt – he had been the one who called Wes his dad. In the right cell was a mixed woman, who – despite her current disposition – Caroline could tell was very pretty.

"Is that – "

"Maggie?" Enzo finished for her sadly, gulping as the woman screamed something about never having loved him. "Yes. Sorry I lied to you about her being dead love, I just didn't know how to explain…this." He gestured to the cells.

"And who is this?" Maggie sneered venomously, looking at Caroline. "Is this some new whore? She certainly looks like a whore. Do you spread your legs for my man, honey? Is that how you got the honor of coming down here and seeing where they keep us prisoner?"

"Alright, that's enough." Tyler said firmly, grabbing Caroline by the shoulders and pulling her out of the room.

Maggie and the boy kept screaming at the top of their lungs as the four left the room they were kept in and Enzo closed the door shut again, immediately drowning out their voices.

"What…the hell?" Caroline finally spluttered out after a few tense seconds. "What the hell _was_ that?"

"Like I said." Wes answered sadly. "I can't _remove_ the Infection, I can only stop its progress. When my son Aaron and Enzo's girlfriend Maggie were given the antidote, the Infection had already worked its way into their hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls emotion. That's the first place the Infection goes, which is why you get irritable and angry for a few hours before you get…"

"Murderous? Cannibalistic?" Enzo supplied sarcastically.

"Yes. That."

"So they're stuck like that?" Caroline asked. "They're going to be awful human beings that say awful things they don't mean for the rest of their lives?"

"No." Wes said firmly. "I'm studying their cells at this very moment, and I'm close to developing a serum that will completely eradicate the Infection from the neurons in their brain, essentially curing them."

"Wow." Caroline breathed out, shaking her head in disbelief. "I just…I think I need some air." She said quickly, turning on her heel and running up the stairs and out the door back into the street.

######

_"__Rebekah! Rebekah!" Klaus screamed, kicking down the door to his sister's apartment where he knew she lived alone. He ducked out of instinct when another bomb went off a few blocks down._

_"__Nik?" He heard a weak voice, whipping around to see his little sister sitting on the floor in her kitchen, knees drawn to her chest in fear. "Nik!" _

_Rebekah stood up instantly, rushing forward and throwing her arms around her brother's neck, sobbing into his chest._

_"__Bekah, Bekah love it's alright, I'm here." He soothed, crushing her tightly to him. "But listen," he held her out an arm's length, "We've got to get out of here. Elijah is downstairs with Stefan and Lexi, we managed to get some supplies together before the bombs started going off."_

_"__What's going on Nik?" Rebekah cried, tears streaming down her face. "I don't understand – "_

_"__I don't have time to explain." He rushed. "We have to go now, the city is too dangerous, those things are everywhere, we have to leave."_

_"__Okay, okay." She nodded hastily, Klaus grabbing her wrist and dragging her towards the door. "Wait, wait!" She cried out, digging her heels into the carpet of her apartment._

_"__Bekah we don't have the time – "_

_"__What about Matt?" She interrupted. "He would be at the bar, we have to go get him too!"_

_Klaus scowled, forcing himself not to knock his sister out cold and just drag her unconscious body downstairs. _

_"__We can't afford to make any more stops little sister – "_

_"__We must!" She screamed, somehow managing to cry even harder. "I love him Nik, I won't leave without him!"_

_The silence between the two siblings was deafening, despite the sirens and screaming and bombs going off outside in what used to be New York's famous streets._

_Finally Klaus looked away and growled under his breath. "Fine! We will stop and get your boyfriend if we leave right now!" He reached forward and grabbed her wrist yet again, pulling her out the door and into the stairwell of her apartment building, the lights flickering above them and the foundation shaking._

_Rebekah came to a stop once again and Klaus rounded on her furiously._

_"__Rebekah Mikaelson I swear if you say one more – "_

_"__Thank you." She interrupted quietly. "Thank you Nik, for coming for me."_

_Klaus paused, his heart constricting._

_"__Of course." He finally spoke. "You're my little sister, Bekah. It's my job to protect you."_

######

"Nik!" Rebekah screamed, half of her body hanging off of the wagon as the carriage flew through the fields, trying to outrun about fifteen Infected who were sprinting after them and making inhuman noises that could scare even the toughest men.

"I've got you!" Klaus shouted back at her, his hand wrapped around her wrist, hauling her back into the wagon where she had fallen off as an Infected had snapped at Stefan, making him step back and incidentally knock into Rebekah.

"Niklaus!" Elijah called from the back of the wagon where he kicked an Infected in the chest away from him, slinging his sword to decapitate another.

"I got her!" Klaus answered his big brother's implied question. He drew a knife from his belt and threw it across the wagon, the blade narrowly missing Lexi's head and flying past her, hitting its mark between an Infected's eyes.

Suddenly they heard Liv scream and Klaus looked back just as Infected caught up to the front of the carriage and grabbed her arm, pulling her down to the ground where the wagon flew past her.

"Liv!" Luke screamed as he heard his twin sister cry out in pain as three Infected began tearing the flesh off of her body.

"Luke don't do anything stupid!" Matt shouted as he narrowly dodged an Infected's scratch, hitting it in the side of the head with a wooden plank.

"Liv!" The boy screamed yet again, moving to jump down from the front of the carriage where he was the only person manning the reigns.

"Don't you dare!" Klaus yelled as he saw Luke's intention, momentarily being distracted just enough for an Infected to reach up to the moving wagon and wrap its flaky hand around Klaus' wrist, trying to pull him to the ground as they did Liv.

Before Klaus could even react, Rebekah sliced off the Infected's hand with her sword. The two siblings glanced at each other briefly, Klaus nodding his thanks.

"Klaus!" Lexi suddenly shouted. "The reigns, you have to get the reigns!"

Klaus looked up in realization that young Luke had in fact jumped to the ground to avenge his sister and was promptly killed within seconds, and now the horses were running erratically with no one steering them.

He took two long strides – cutlass still in hand – before jumping across the back of the wagon and onto the moving carriage where the reigns were located. He landed gracefully, taking the reigns in hand and snapping them, guiding the horses in the direction of the gray walls he saw just about a quarter of a mile ahead. _Whitmore_.

His group behind him was finishing off the Infected that had come out of the nearby woods about half an hour ago, and for a while there Klaus had honestly thought they weren't going to make it. But as Elijah shoved his sword through the last Infected's chest just as they reached the outside of the sixty foot tall walls, he realized they were going to be okay.

Before the last Infected had even fallen to the ground, about ten men with large guns came running out of the walls screaming at all of them to put their hands up.

They all immediately complied with the men that had much better weapons than they did. All except Klaus of course, ever the stubborn one who was yelling that they were obviously just killing the Infected and not joining them. Elijah's stern voice shut him up quickly though, but not without a few more grumbled choice words from Klaus.

Elijah explained to one of the patrols that they were from the east, and that they had met a woman named Rose who had told them about Whitmore, a safe haven. It took a little convincing, not aided by Klaus' constant irritated grumblings to just 'let them inside the bloody walls before more Infected show up dammit.'

Eventually they were let inside the walls, the clouds getting darker overhead. It would rain soon, so they made good time despite the fact that they were attacked three different times on their last leg of the journey.

"Hallelujah!" Lexi shouted as they stepped inside the walls, literally falling to her knees and kissing the ground.

And despite how absolutely irritated, sleep-deprived, and physically weary he was, Klaus couldn't help but agree at Lexi's exclamation.

They had made it to Whitmore.

**######**

**A/N: Okay soooo, I really don't like this chapter, but oh well. I just was so worried about including all the little details about the antidote and Wes' involvement that I didn't give a lot of entertainment. Idk. Maybe I'm overthinking things. Basically I just had to set up the scene for the NEXT chapter, WHICH IS THE KLAROLINE AND KALIJAH REUNION OMGGGG. REVIEW AND TELL ME HOW EPIC YOU THINK IT WILL BE. xoxo**


	8. Chapter 8 - Reunited

**Chapter 8 - Reunited**

**A/N: IT'S HEREEE THE KLAROLINE AND KALIJAH REUNION MY BABIES ARE FINALLY SEEING EACH OTHER AGAIN *heart eyes emoji* okay sorry just had to freak out a bit. Oh and there's only one flashback in this chapter but it's super fluffy so I hope that makes up for it. Please review and let me know how you like this chapter! **

######

_"__But Klaus Christmas is the best time of the year!" Caroline protested, jumping up on the counter in Klaus' lavish penthouse kitchen. _

_"__I have to disagree, love." He said matter-of-factly, putting a dash of salt into the vegetable soup he was making. "I personally like Halloween the most."_

_Caroline rolled her eyes, crossing her legs and leaning in dramatically. _

_"__Let me guess. You were always the guy that jumped out and scared trick or treaters when they came to your door?"_

_Klaus put on a mock look of offense at her words._

_"__Caroline, what do you take me for?" He asked innocently and almost had Caroline fooled into thinking he was actually offended. "I made sure to steal their candy too after I scared them all away."_

_"__Shutup!" Caroline laughed, making Klaus break out into a grin as well. Her laugh was something he would never grow tired of even after six months of dating. _

_"__You know you tease me too much." She said a few moments later as Klaus reached up to one of the higher cabinets to pull out some glasses for them. "And one of these days I'm going to tease you back so hard you won't know what hit you."_

_Klaus scoffed, narrowing his eyes at her playfully as he searched for the Bourbon he had stored somewhere around there. _

_"__Caroline love, you keep me on my toes enough as it is, you don't have to worry about that." He murmured sarcastically, but she could still detect the affection behind his words. "Not to mention that since you're immune to my charm – as you so poetically put it when we met seven months ago – I have to use something to my advantage. And you are so fun to tease." He winked at her playfully before turning his back to her and pouring their drinks._

_Caroline chuckled, shaking her head fondly. _

_"__You know it's a good thing I love you." She said offhandedly, a crooked smile on her delicate face._

_Klaus froze, and so did Caroline a few seconds later as she realized what she had said. In their six months of dating neither of them had dared to say those three words, scared of what the weight of them could mean for their relationship. They had both thought it a hundred times of course, but neither of them knew that about the other._

_Klaus turned around slowly, meeting Caroline's wide eyes, her mouth slightly parted in shock at herself._

_"__Oh gosh." She said quickly, terror written all over her face. "Oh gosh oh gosh I didn't – I didn't mean to say that, I just – "_

_Klaus' heart dropped as did his expression when she said that. She said those three words, making his heart and soul soar because she said it so nonchalantly and genuinely in a way that he had never heard before, only to take them back._

_" – __well I mean of course I meant to say that because I mean I do…you know, that," Caroline rambled on, making Klaus remember how to breathe again, "It's just that I never meant to say it like that, you know, it's supposed to be special and oh gosh," She put her head in her hands and hunched her shoulders over, "I just blurted it out like word vomit or something and now you're not saying anything so I'm probably freaking you out and I just…I'm going to go. Yeah, I'm going to go, I need to…go."_

_Klaus' brain finally started to work again as he realized Caroline had jumped down from the counter and was grabbing her bag to leave, still rambling like crazy while he stood there with a glass of Bourbon in his hand like a mute._

_Slamming the glass down on his counter harder than necessary, Klaus met Caroline by his front door in three large strides, spinning her around by the shoulders to face him._

_Caroline's incessant nervous rambling was cut short as Klaus' lips found hers forcefully, pushing her back against his front door. Her mind blanked at the familiar sensation, her fingers finding their way to the front of his shirt, curling around the fabric. Klaus' own hands were laid flat against the small of her back, pulling her delicate frame into his body so that there was as little space between them as possible._

_As they broke apart both gasping for breath, their foreheads leaned together, Klaus had to take a moment to get his bearings together._

_This beautiful girl in front of him, this goddess, was all his. And not only that but she loved him. She actually loved him. Him, the man who had done countless awful things to friend and foe alike. Him, the man who constantly pushed her away when she got too close, only for her to push right back. _

_He, the monster in the dark, was loved by her, the angel in the light._

_"__What was that for?" Caroline asked breathlessly, looking up at the beautiful man in front of her from underneath her long eyelashes._

_"__That," Klaus said seriously, "Was because I love you too."_

######

"Welcome to Whitmore!" A woman named Carol Lockwood clapped her hands together to the group of haggard survivors in front of her.

They had just finished traveling through the night and fighting off a total of about fifty Infected, and she was stood there looking pristine in her skirt and blouse. Hell, she was even wearing makeup. Klaus had never been so thankful yet disgusted at the same time.

"If you would be so kind as to step over here to your right and answer a few of our people's questions and let them explain the guidelines of the community to you, it would be greatly – "

"We're looking for people." Klaus interrupted harshly, stepping towards the woman who immediately took a step backwards. "We think that our family could be here, we just need to – "

"We can direct you towards any potential Whitmore members here if you would please just help us with our records." Mrs. Lockwood said smoothly, maintaining eye contact with a very annoyed Klaus Mikaelson.

Klaus scowled and Elijah stepped up to his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder and startling him.

"Niklaus, these people have rules and if we wish to stay here we should abide by them." He said calmly, making Mrs. Lockwood smile at his sense of reason. "It would be very easy for them to – "

Elijah suddenly stopped speaking as he caught a glimpse of messy brown curls in the corner of his eye. A woman was drawing water at the well in front of them, her back to Elijah, but he would recognize that woman anywhere. She was in dirty jeans and a black short sleeve shirt, and he wanted to laugh that she managed to somehow find a pair of high wedged boots even in the midst of the apocalypse. But he couldn't laugh because he was too entranced.

Elijah stepped past Klaus, who was confused and slightly annoyed at his brother's sudden lack of intellect. Elijah walked slowly towards the woman whom had his heart, body, and soul, stopping about five feet behind her.

"Katerina." He whispered, his voice full of emotion.

Katherine was caught off guard by the physical pain that swept through her heart at the voice that spoke her birth given name – _his_ voice. She dropped the bucket half filled with water to the ground as she spun on her heel so fast she could have gotten whiplash.

"Elijah." She breathed out, completely and utterly shocked at the vision of the man she vowed to spend her life with standing right in front of her. His body looked destroyed, frayed pants and a torn white shirt, a bloody tourniquet wrapped around his upper arm. His hair wasn't styled up like it always was before The Outbreak but instead falling in front of his face. Dirt and blood smeared his strong jawline, but his eyes – his eyes never wavered. They were still full of the love and devotion he had for her when they first met.

"Katerina." He repeated in a stronger voice, taking one large step forward and wrapping one arm around his wife's waist and using the other to cradle her cheek in his hand. Their lips met as if they hadn't been separated for eight months, each of them pouring more love and emotion into the embrace than they had ever experienced.

As husband and wife were reunited, Damon, Elena, Kol, and Bonnie had heard the commotion of newcomers from their rooms, running outside to see who it was.

"Stefan!" Damon shouted, unashamed of how ridiculous he looked as he shoved past people walking around the well and watching Katherine and Elijah's reunion. "Stefan!" He screamed again as he caught a glimpse of his brother's stupid hair that he always made fun of before The Outbreak.

"Damon!"

Damon ran right past the well and crashed into his brother, not caring one bit about it either. He put his hand on the back of his brother's head and held him tightly, heart filled with emotion that his baby brother was alive when he hadn't been there to take care of him.

"Nik, it's Kol." Rebekah breathed out with a laugh. "Oh my gosh it's Kol!"

"Bekah!" Kol shouted, overjoyed as he saw her face for the first time in not months, but years. He dropped Bonnie's hand and ran at her with what could have been superhuman speed, picking his sister up and spinning her around joyfully.

Elena ran over to Matt, Stefan, and Lexi, tears streaming down her face as she hugged her friends like her life depended on it. Jeremy and Alaric had come over by now too, and the townspeople looked on and clapped as loved ones were reunited.

Yet Klaus stood off to the side scanning people's faces relentlessly. He knew he should go over and see his younger brother, but he couldn't stop wondering why _she_ wasn't with them. The entire group that was in Chicago except Alaric's wife were there, so where was Caroline?

_Because she isn't here,_ he finally thought somberly. She couldn't be there, if she were she would've come out with the rest of them. Caroline wasn't with the group which meant…

_Oh no_, Klaus' heart dropped and he had the sudden urge to punch the wall that enclosed Whitmore with every ounce of his strength, tearing down the _one hope_ that he had been clinging onto. He stumbled away from the crowd, nobody even noticing him leaving.

He walked alongside the wall, hand bracing himself up as the pain tore at his heart. He was in actual, physical pain at the prospect of his Caroline being gone. The pain started to be lessened by an immense amount of rage that he couldn't control. He was just about to scream at the skies when suddenly a door was flung open to his left from a nearby brick building.

When Caroline reached the top of the stairs leading out of Dr. Maxfield's lab, she burst through the door and stepped out breathlessly, trying to get her bearings. She put her hands on her knees as the door swung shut behind her, closing her eyes and trying to catch her breath.

She couldn't get over what she had seen down there in the lab. It was…horrible, disgusting, heartbreaking. Enzo had to watch the love of his life hate him with every fiber of her being each and every day with only the hope that Wes would perfect his antidote into a cure. And poor Wes, despite how awful of a person he was for jumpstarting the apocalypse, his own son was telling him to kill himself because his biology was demanding it. Caroline couldn't fathom having to suffer that kind of torture day in and day out. She would never be able to strong enough to do that like Enzo and Wes.

A minute or two passed of her trying to catch her breath, the rain starting to fall around her as she knew it would. She took one last deep breath and let it out slowly, becoming aware of the cheering she could hear from the townspeople to her left. She stood up to her full height gradually, getting an eerie feeling that she was being watched.

As she looked to where the noises were coming from the first thing she saw was Katherine making out with someone hardcore. Before she could even process what was going on _there_, she saw that past Katherine, Damon was hugging someone that looked a lot like Stefan. Actually, they looked a _lot_ like Stefan. And now that she thought about it, Katherine's make out buddy looked like Elijah.

And _holy hell_, she thought to herself, _that's Rebekah with Kol. And Matt with Jeremy! They're back!_

But just as she had taken a step forward, fully intending to run after her friends that she hadn't seen in months, the feeling that she was being watched intensified. It intensified so much that she recognized its familiarity, and she turned on her heel slowly, the sound of the rain falling around her deafening her ears as she saw the man standing behind her.

He was about twenty feet away, leaning against the enclosing walls and staring at her. He was shaking, the rain soaking his lean frame. Even from so far away she could see the rain drops beading on his eyelashes and dripping from his nose.

His gaze was so intense it felt like the breath had been knocked right out of her and she very audibly gasped. Her mouth floundered for words to say, but nothing came out.

Klaus was the first to move, pushing himself away from the wall and taking three slow, calculated steps towards her. He was so afraid that she would disappear, be washed away with the rain just like all of his other hopes and dreams before he met her.

But she didn't disappear. In fact, she started to walk towards him as well, the rain soaking through her purple shirt and dark jeans. Her hair matted to the top of her head, a few strands sticking to her face that Klaus immediately wanted to push away. His stride increased, realizing that this wasn't some trick by The Universe, that she was really here in front of him.

Caroline matched his speed, and pretty soon they were both full on running to each other. Caroline gasped as they finally reached each other, throwing her arms around him with a choked sob, holding onto her for dear life.

The feeling of her in his arms was overwhelming to Klaus, and he literally fell to his knees, taking Caroline with him. She was shaking in his arms as they both knelt in what was now mud, his arms around her middle, crushing her to him.

Tears slid out from his own eyes as he shut them tight, reveling in the feel of his one true love back in his arms. He had always hoped this day would come, had imagined it countless times, but no figment of his imagination could match the real thing.

"K-Klaus." Caroline finally stuttered out, making him shiver at the sound of her voice, further revealing to him that she was actually there. "I th-thought you were dead." She pulled back and put her hands on his face, her eyes squinted shut as she tried to compose herself.

"I'm here." He all but whispered in a gentle tone, pushing the wet hair away from her beautiful face and making eye contact with her as she finally looked up at him. "I'm here, love."

Caroline couldn't say anything, just leaned her forehead against his and let the rain fall around them. Their breaths intermingled and neither knew the right words to say – they weren't even capable of saying anything at that point.

Caroline moved first, her mouth hovering over Klaus' carefully as if he might disappear. He leaned in more forcefully, and when their lips met it was like the world imploded.

Nothing in either of their lives had ever compared to the feeling of that exact moment when they kissed. It was like coming home. Damn the apocalypse, damn it all to hell if it meant they could have this. That they could have each other.

They separated carefully, as if the other might break or disappear if they moved too fast. Caroline's eyes were shut tightly and she laughed through her tears, completely and utterly wrecked. He was _here_. Things were going to go back to normal, they could finally -

And then she opened her eyes.

Only to see blood dripping from his nose.

**######**

**A/N: JFKLADJFLAKJFLA REVIEW PLEASE**


	9. Chapter 9 - Nicest Bloke Around

**Chapter 9 – Nicest Bloke Around**

**######**

_"__You know you're getting really good at that." Bonnie remarked to Caroline as the blonde threw her blade and hit her target for the third time in a row._

_Caroline let out a deep breath and tried to muster a smile at Bonnie, who she had somewhat befriended in the last two months since The Outbreak. Well, nobody was really friends anymore since the apocalypse started, but there were close all the same._

_"__Thanks." She said weakly, walking over to the wooden board she had been throwing the knives at and retrieving them. They were currently holed up in an abandoned mechanic's shop, the Infected out and about since the sun was down._

_This was the time that Caroline would train, trying to make herself stronger to survive The Outbreak for as long as she could. Alaric had shown her how to throw knives a few weeks ago, and she realized that she had quite the aptitude for it. Ever since then, she practiced every night if she could depending on where they decided to hide out. Three days ago though Bonnie had asked if she could join, which Caroline was fine with. It was actually nice to have someone up with her into the late hours of the night when the others were sleeping. _

_"__Kol asked if he could help me with this stuff tonight." Bonnie said offhandedly, glancing at her boyfriend's sleeping form on the other side of the shop. "But I told him no because I kind of get the feeling that you don't like him."_

_Caroline chuckled nervously as she walked back to where Bonnie was, knives in hand. _

_"__It's not that I don't like Kol." She said. "It's just that he…"_

_"__Reminds you of him?" Bonnie finished for her, making Caroline inhale sharply. "You were dating Klaus before The Outbreak right? Kol's brother?"_

_Caroline grit her teeth and turned back to the target, flipping the knife in her hands a few times._

_"__Yeah." She said simply, flinging the blade at the target as hard as she could. It hit its mark flawlessly._

_"__I only ever heard Kol talk about his siblings a few times." Bonnie said quietly, pausing as Caroline threw her second knife. "But he did say once that he and Klaus were the most alike out of all five siblings." She chuckled quietly. "You know, cocky, arrogant, self-assured beyond reason, that kind of alike."_

_Caroline spun on her heel to face Bonnie head on after she threw the last knife. _

_"__Look are you trying to accomplish something?" She asked harshly, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't wake up everyone else. "Because I'm trying to train, and that's what you said you wanted to do too. I know we're kind of friends and all now or whatever, but I really don't want to talk about boys with you."_

_"__I'm just saying that I get it." Bonnie said quietly, not bothered in the slightest by Caroline's outburst. "I get loving someone that's wrong for you in all the right ways. Loving someone that has done so many awful things but is somehow never awful with you. I get it, trust me. Kol is the last guy on the planet I ever saw myself ending up with and now I can't imagine life without him, zombies or no zombies. And I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you and Klaus are separated and if you ever need to talk, I'm here."_

_Caroline was silent as Bonnie looked her right in the eye. She could tell that Bonnie was being sincere, and it was painful to constantly see the parallels between her and Kol's relationship in comparison to her own with Klaus. But knowing that Bonnie had an understanding of what she felt for Klaus did put things into perspective for her._

_Caroline simply nodded, making Bonnie give her a slight smile. The darker skinned girl turned and picked up one of her own knives and held it out to Caroline. _

_"__So tell me. I know you never talk about Klaus, but…what's the first thing you're going to do when you see him again? Because you will see him again."_

_Caroline took a deep breath and grabbed the knife out of Bonnie's hand._

_"__I don't know." She said in complete and total honesty, turning back to the target. "I really don't know."_

_An Infected roared outside at the same time the knife pierced into the middle of the wooden target._

######

"No." Caroline whispered, her voice filled with the pain she was feeling as she looked at the blood dripping from Klaus' nose. They were still knelt in the mud, rain pouring around them. "No, no, no, this can't be happening."

"What is it?" Klaus asked worriedly, reaching up a hand to touch her cheek, but Caroline flinched back involuntarily. "Caroline, it's me, I'm here." He tried to assure her.

Caroline's eyes were wide as could be, her lip quivering in heartbreak intermingled with terror.

"Y-Your nose." She stuttered out, rain drops mixing with the tears that were starting to fall down her face. "It's bleeding."

Klaus made a face, reaching a hand up to touch under his nose. He held it out to see and sure enough, red was dripping from his hand.

"Impossible." He breathed out, his anxiety shooting through the roof. "No, no, it can't be!" He shouted, scrambling to his feet and taking a hazardous step back, wiping at his nose furiously. Caroline stood up as well, still shell shocked that Klaus was even in front of her, but more dazed that he could be... Infected.

Despite the jumble of emotions going through her mind at that point, Caroline did what she did best and stepped forward to comfort Klaus, grabbing his hand and forcing him to look at her, bringing her other hand up to his cheek.

"Hey, hey, relax." She said with a fake smile he saw right through. "It's going to be fine, you're going to be fine I promise. We're going to –"

"Caroline love, what's with all the commotion out here? Are your –"

Caroline and Klaus both turned their heads to see Enzo stepping out from the building that housed Wes' lab. Enzo's eyes widened as he looked from Caroline touching Klaus' face where his nose was bleeding, and then over to where the rest of the town was obliviously watching the reunion between her other friends. It took all of five seconds for him to deduce what was going on.

"Oh my." He said slowly. "You certainly are in a pickle. Come on then, the antidote is this way. And I would suggest you hurry, we are in a bit of a timeframe here."

Enzo then turned on his heel and strode back into the building calm as could be.

"Of course." Caroline breathed out, her back to Klaus but still holding his hand. "The antidote. The antidote! Hurry, come with me!"

Klaus was caught between telling her that of course he would follow her anywhere after being separated for eight months, and asking her why the hell that man had called her love and if it would be acceptable for him to tear out the stranger's throat with his bare hands. And what frustrated Klaus even further was that he couldn't _stop_ his mind from having those two separate trains of thought no matter how much he tried.

Caroline squeezed Klaus' hand and started pulling him towards the building, glancing left and right worriedly, making sure nobody saw them. Or more importantly, saw Klaus' bleeding nose. She was already freaking out, she didn't need people to get in a panic and making a patrol shoot him in the head thinking that he was an Infected that somehow made it behind the walls and was about to murder everyone.

She opened the door hurriedly, pulling Klaus down the narrow set of stairs as quickly as she could, reminding herself that now was not the time to cry about Klaus and the rest of her friends being here, that she could do that as soon as Wes administered the antidote.

"Wes!" She shouted as she reached the bottom of the steps, "Wes, he needs the antidote, right now." She gasped out, coming to a stop in the lab.

Klaus looked around with a dazed expression at the room he was in now, water mixed with blood still dripping from his nose. There were three men in the room and he pulled Caroline closer to him. Being separated from her for so long had done nothing but intensify his instinctive and slightly obsessive need to keep her away from men who could hurt her.

"I'm working on it." Klaus heard one of the men say, his back to them as he filled up a syringe with an amber colored liquid. "Now this antidote is mixed with a sedative so he'll be out cold as soon as it's administered." The man continued as he turned to face them, syringe in hand.

Klaus began to question why the bloody hell he needed a sedative and for somebody to explain what was going on before he began bashing their heads into the wall, but he froze when he saw who the doctor with the needle was.

"You." He said venomously, immediately recognizing the man who had created the Infection, having seen his face on tons of news stations and talk shows before The Outbreak.

"Klaus no!" Caroline shouted as he dropped her hand and was in front of Wes in just a single stride, connecting his fist to Wes' already bruised face much harder than Caroline had punched him the day before.

Klaus didn't stop there though. As Wes fell to the ground he jumped on top of the doctor and continued pummeling him. Enzo yelled at him to stop, running over and trying to pull Klaus off of the man who was trying to help him. Klaus didn't even notice though, he had complete and total tunnel vision. The only thought running through his mind at that moment was 'kill the bastard that started The Outbreak.'

"Klaus stop, he's trying to help you!" Caroline screamed, but to no avail, and as she stepped towards the fight Klaus knocked Enzo backwards right into her. She started to fall and Tyler ran behind her and grabbed her around the waist, helping her back up before she could hit the hard floor.

"Caroline are you okay?" Tyler asked worriedly, his hands not leaving her waist as he made sure she wasn't hurt.

At the sound of the boy saying Caroline's name, Klaus' head cleared for a few brief seconds, giving him a momentary window of sanity. He looked over his shoulder, bloody fist still raised to punch Wes. Upon seeing someone he didn't recognize with his hands around Caroline's waist, resting them on her hips as he stood with his chest pressed to her back, her clothes soaked through and not leaving much to the imagination, everything turned red yet again.

"Get away from her!" Klaus roared, standing up from the ground to walk over there and turn his rage on the stranger touching his Caroline.

Caroline was just in the middle of reaching for Klaus to try and calm him down when Enzo reached down and grabbed the syringe from Wes' hand and plunged it into Klaus' neck all within seconds.

Klaus stilled, a strangled sound coming from his throat. His eyes met Caroline's as he fell to his knees, trying to fight the sedative but to no avail.

Caroline would never forget that moment for the rest of her life. She watched the man she had given her heart to a long time ago fall to the ground, trails of blood falling from his nose and down his mouth and chin, his dirty white shirt clinging to his chest from the rain, pupils blown wide as he stared at her with eyes full of pain, confusion, terror. But most of all anger.

It had been eight months of pure torture being separated from him, not knowing if she would make it through the night, not knowing if he was alive or dead or a monster. She hadn't seen the man she loved with all her heart in eight whole months, and then the second she got him back he was being ripped away from her again.

And as Klaus' eyes finally slipped shut and he fell face first to the floor, Caroline knew that she would certainly never forget that awful moment.

Her choked sobs overwhelmed her and she fell to the floor, Tyler trying to hold her up as Katherine, Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol all ran down the stairs of the lab. They had seen Caroline dragging Klaus inside the building and had started to hurry when they heard screaming and fighting. Luckily none of the other townspeople had noticed and the others in their group were too busy reunited with their friends and family.

"Nik!" Rebekah screamed, rushing down the stairs. Just as she did though Enzo stepped in front of her and stopped her with his hands held up.

"Woah, woah, easy there gorgeous." He said in a serious tone. "He's down for the count at the moment and I don't know when he'll wake up again so you need to stay back."

"Oh bugger off you twit, that's my brother!" Rebekah sassed back at him, shoving the stranger to the side and running over to her brother. "Nik?" She asked, not even bothering with Caroline who was on the ground in a heap sobbing uncontrollably. Rebekah turned her brother over slowly, Elijah and Kol approaching them from behind.

"No." Elijah breathed out upon seeing the state his brother was in, blood on his face which only meant one thing.

"You let him get Infected?" Kol shouted, rounding on Elijah. Rebekah was still sitting beside Klaus with a shocked expression, not saying a word. "How could you let this happen?" Kol screamed in Elijah's face, grabbing him by the front of his shirt with both of his hands.

"Hey, hey, get off of him!" Katherine yelled, ripping Kol's hands from her husband and standing in front of him.

"What's wrong with him?" Rebekah finally asked in regards to Klaus, turning to look up at everyone. "Why is he unconscious?"

"Because I administered a sedative." Wes choked out, pushing himself up from the ground and holding his broken nose with his hand. The newcomers all turned to look at him, not even having noticed the doctor before then. "And before any of you recognizes me and decides to try and kill me, I'm the only person that can save your brother so just…don't."

"You created the cure." Rebekah breathed out in shock as she realized. "The cancer cure that turned into the Infection."

"Yes." Wes said simply, shoving his nose back into place with a pained grunt, leaning against one of the tables and breathing heavily. "And I've created an antidote that stops the spreading of the Infection. I just gave it to who I assume is your brother right after he tried to kill me."

"You can save him?" Elijah asked hopefully, stepping towards the doctor from behind his wife.

"Well technically – "

"No." Caroline interrupted him in a weak voice, staring at Klaus' unconscious form from her place on the ground. Tyler was kneeled next to her looking on worriedly. "He can't save him, only stop him from getting worse. His Infection will stay where it's at now." She sniffed, trying to hold back more tears.

"We have two more people in similar conditions." Tyler added on, looking up at the people he didn't know around him. "We'll put him in a cell where he can't hurt anyone until Wes figures out a cure."

"But until then," Enzo said dramatically, looking down at Klaus with an eyebrow raised, "I can tell you for certain that your brother isn't exactly going to be the nicest bloke around."

Everyone looked at each other and then down at Klaus, nobody knowing what to say. Caroline was finally reunited with her love, Kol, Elijah, and Klaus were finally back together as siblings, only for the reveal that Klaus was Infected to make their circumstances bleak once again. And Kol hadn't even gotten to speak to Klaus before this happened.

"Well." Enzo said loudly, clapping his hands together and breaking the horribly stifling tension. When everyone turned to look at him he gave them all a crooked and impish smile. "Welcome to Whitmore."

**######**

**A/N: Soooo I've got the next four or five chapters all planned out and can I just say that I'm SUPER EXCITED ABOUT WHERE THIS STORY IS GOING IT'S GOING TO BE SO PAINFUL I LOVE IT. **

**Make sure to review and let me know what you think! xoxo**


	10. Chapter 10 - Act Like It

**Chapter 10 – Act Like It **

**A/N: To everyone who has reviewed as a guest, thank you for your support! Sorry I can't reply back to you :( Enjoy the chapter and remember to review!**

**######**

_"__You know I must say Caroline, I was quite shocked when you called me." Klaus said with a smirk as he sat across from Caroline at a much too fancy restaurant overlooking the harbor on their first date._

_Caroline chuckled as she took a drink of the expensive wine he had ordered, crinkling her nose a bit at the extremely rich taste that she had no prior experience with._

_"__Yeah well, I was pretty shocked at myself to be honest." She said bluntly as she leaned back in her seat. "Trust me, calling irritating British men and asking them out on dates isn't something I do every day."_

_Klaus grinned, drinking in the sight of the beauty in front of him. She was wearing a modest dark blue dress, her hair in loose waves and her makeup light. Not that she needed makeup to begin with. After she had called him while he was at Matt's bar he had immediately agreed to go on said date with her but insisted that he plan out the details himself. Now they were at a swanky restaurant dining in a private back room with much too expensive entrees that had hardly any food, sitting in awkwardly dark lighting with a bottle of wine between them that probably cost more than Caroline's monthly rent._

_"__So," Caroline said after an awkward beat, "Is this what you do for all the girls you date? Take them to fancy restaurants?"_

_"__Not always." Klaus said honestly, never breaking eye contact. "But truth be told, I don't really date much."_

_"__Ah, of course." Caroline said nodding her head. "The bachelor life is something I've always envied. I mean if a girl goes around sleeping with whoever she wants then she's dubbed a slut. If a man does it then he's praised like a god. I just don't get it." She laughed bitterly, taking another sip of the wine. _

_Klaus studied her curiously. Caroline seemed like the type of girl who had a very good intuition about the human condition. That is to say that most people _want_ to be good, but very few people actually are._

_"__Well I don't know what you may think of me, but despite my bachelor status I don't go around sleeping with every woman I meet on the street." Klaus said with a smirk._

_"__Well," Caroline said, pausing for a moment and meeting his eyes, a small smile gracing her face, "I suppose that's a good thing."_

_Klaus grinned. He couldn't help but think that he had smiled more in the past hour and a half with Caroline than he had in the past month._

_"__But back to your question about dating," He said after a few moments of intense eye contact, "I must ask. For a first date, how did I do?"_

_He gestured around him to the private room and the ridiculously amazing view of the New York Harbor that it overlooked, the Statue of Liberty in plain sight. Caroline looked around as well before glancing back at Klaus' cocky facial expression._

_"__Honestly?" Caroline asked, biting her lip and looking conflicted. "Kind of awful."_

_Klaus' face fell and he looked at her in disbelief. "What?" He asked incredulously. "Awful? This is a five star restaurant!"_

_Caroline laughed then, leaning on the table and putting her face in her hands._

_"__Klaus! You can't just win over any girl's heart by taking them to a really expensive restaurant that intimidates the hell out of them!" She said, still laughing at the situation. "I mean for goodness sake they gave me three forks! Who needs three forks?!"_

_Klaus cocked his head to the side at her, utterly and completely confused. Isn't this what women wanted? To be doted on, lavished on?_

_"__Look, when I called you and asked you out, I did it because I wanted to get to know you." Caroline said in a much softer tone of voice. "And even though we had good conversation, I still don't know a single thing about you and you don't anything about me either. This place is…stifling. And this wine is awful." She added on, making the corner of Klaus' mouth turn up._

_"__It is pretty bad, isn't it?" He asked in a disappointed tone._

_"__Yes! It is!" Caroline exclaimed, making him duck his head and chuckle. "Look, why don't we just get out of here? We can go walk around Central Park, you can offer me your coat because it's cold, it'll be really sweet and win you tons of points." That made Klaus laugh yet again. "And then we can go to a hot dog stand and get a bunch of really greasy, unhealthy food because that salad I ordered wouldn't have filled a rabbit."_

_Klaus looked at Caroline with a fond expression, studying her. This girl wasn't just anyone, she was special. She talked about important social issues, she knew what was going on in the political world, she had been salutatorian of her graduating class in high school. And yet expensive dates freaked her out, she would rather feed ducks at Central Park, or volunteer a local children's hospital, or rant about how Kanye loved Kim and no one could tell her otherwise._

_She was an oddity that had utterly gripped his heart._

_"__Come on." Caroline pleaded, mistaking the expression on Klaus' face for an internal conflict. "Get to know me." She smirked then, tilting her chin down at him in challenge. "I dare you."_

_And well, Klaus never backs down from a dare. So they walked around Central Park, and he lent her his coat, and they ate hotdogs, and Caroline laughed when he got mustard on his shirt, and they each gave fifty dollars to a street dancer, and they had the best second half of a first date ever._

_He learned that she loved horror movies, hated onions, resented her father for leaving when she was a kid, and was still proud of her three year streak as Miss Mystic Falls. She learned that he had four siblings total, hadn't spoken to his father in three years, missed Kol but wouldn't dare admit it to anyone else, and that Stefan was his best friend outside of his immediate family._

_And when he walked her to the front door of her apartment she turned to him with the most genuine smile he had ever received._

_"__When will I see you again?" She asked with a hopeful expression that made his heart soar._

_"__Depends." He replied. "I know I would like to see you tomorrow. And the day after that. And the next day, and the next day…" He trailed off._

_Caroline laughed, taking a step closer to him and not even realizing it._

_"__Oh yeah? And how long will that sentiment last, Mr. Terminal Bachelor?" She asked sarcastically._

_"__I don't know." Klaus said honestly, leaning in closer to her and making her heart skip a beat. "Hopefully forever."_

######

Klaus woke up slowly, feeling as if a fog was surrounding him. He groaned as he came to, confused as to where he was. He was laying on something soft – softer than he had laid on in months. Usually they slept in cars at night but this felt like…well it felt like a _bed_.

As his eyes started to flutter open, the light hurt more than he expected and he threw his arm over his face to block it out. With the movement came the soreness and he groaned yet again, but this time in pain. His head was pounding as if something was in there trying to get out, and his neck felt like someone had stabbed him.

Then it all came rushing back. Arriving at Whitmore. Seeing Caroline – oh God, he _saw_ _Caroline_. He ran to her, he held her in his arms, it had all been real. But then his nose has started bleeding because the most terrifying thing had become his reality. He was Infected. Then Caroline had dragged him away rambling about how she knew what they had to do, and then there were those three strangers – those three _men_ that were looking at his Caroline. And one of them was Dr. Maxfield – the bastard who started The Outbreak.

Klaus' rage started to intensify against his will as he thought about how he had punched the doctor over and over again, only to stop and see that other boy touching _her_. His heart rate started to pick up as anger took over every rational thought in his mind. He remembered hearing the door upstairs open just as the other man plunged a syringe into his neck and then seeing Caroline's terrified expression as everything went black.

The anger that Klaus had at that moment was like nothing he had ever felt before – and he was well aware of his temper problems. But this was something else entirely. It felt like a dense cloud of fog surrounding all rationality, suffocating his every thought. A fog that, no matter where he turned or ran to, he couldn't escape. A fog that made him want to kill anyone and everyone – starting with the bugger that had stabbed him.

And then he heard her.

"Klaus?" The small voice asked. The voice that had uttered his name hundreds of times in affection, in ecstasy, in fear, in joy. The voice that had the power to cut through the fog instantly.

Klaus sat up so quickly he got a head rush and he had to blink a few times to make out the blurry figure across the room. When he did though, it was as if he had tunnel vision, eyes only for _her_.

She was sitting in a dingy chair with her legs pulled up in a criss-cross in front of her. She had changed clothes since their reunion and was now wearing black pants and a white shirt that made her skin look more tanned than it actually was. The corner of his mouth turned upwards as he looked at her face, eyes glassy as she smiled at him. Granted, the smile was weak and forced, but he had dreamt of it over and over again the past several months all the same.

"Caroline." He whispered her name like a prayer, stumbling out of the cot and towards her. He was confused when she didn't reach out to him but then understood as he had to come to a stop about five feet away.

In confusion, Klaus reached out his hands and wrapped them around the steel bars keeping him from his love. As he looked away from Caroline the fog immediately started to make its return. He made a growl-like sound in the back of his throat as he pulled on the bars but to no avail.

"It's no use."

Klaus snapped his head up to the familiar but not long heard voice, seeing that there were three other people in the room. His siblings, to be more precise.

"You can bang on those bars all you want but you can't get out." Kol continued as he leaned on the opposite wall, one of his knees bent so he could prop his foot up against the dark brick. "It's the only way to keep you and everyone else safe."

"Kol." Klaus said in disbelief, staring at the brother he hadn't seen in over two years. To be the youngest brother he looked much older. His jawline was strong, his body lean with muscle. Eyes that used to hold mischief and trouble were now heavy laden with concern.

But as he continued to stare at Kol, Klaus' mind forced him to remember everything bad his brother had ever done to him. Which was a _long_ list.

"Long time no see, _brother_." Klaus hissed, eyes widening with the rage that was his body was demanding of him. "I'm surprised you're alive. I figured you would have just given up trying to survive the bloody apocalypse like we all know you give up on everything else, including your family."

Kol tried to keep his expression unwavering, but a flash of hurt crossed his strong features.

"Nik." Rebekah spoke, making Klaus snap his head to where she was standing beside Kol. "Everything's alright, you just need to calm down." She said kindly, smiling at her brother despite how absolutely awful she was feeling.

"Calm down?" He asked incredulously, gripping the bars even tighter. "Calm down?! You've trapped me in a bloody cell! You brought me to a safe haven only to stuff me in a prison so no Bekah, I will not calm down!"

"You're Infected." Caroline suddenly spoke in a strong voice, the tears that were in her eyes now gone. She uncrossed her legs and stood up slowly as Klaus turned to stare at her as if she weren't even really there. "But we managed to stop it before it fully manifested thanks to Wes. I know that you're angry." She said slowly and firmly, taking a tiny calculated step towards the bars. "But that's just the Infection that's still inside you. You have to fight it."

"Caroline." He basically whimpered, now leaning onto the bars for support as his lip trembled. "Caroline I've missed you so much love, I was…I was so scared you were dead."

Caroline quirked her lips up at him, taking another step forward without thinking. Klaus extended his hand out to her through the bars and just as Caroline was about to take it, Elijah reached out and grabbed her forearm, gently pulling her back.

"_Don't_ _touch_ _her_!" Klaus roared loudly, not even realizing that he was screaming until he had already done it. Everyone in the room except Elijah jumped, and Rebekah burst into tears and turned to bury her face into Kol's chest.

"Klaus it's okay." Caroline said slowly, looking at Klaus to try and force eye contact with him. He seemed to calm down every time he looked at her specifically. "It's just Elijah, okay? You know he would never hurt me."

Klaus blinked a few times and looked down at the ground shaking his head.

"Of course, of course. Elijah would…never…"

He seemed confused, like he didn't even know why he was so angry at the prospect of his married older brother touching his girlfriend innocently. As he looked back up, a pain ripped through his chest as he saw Elijah staring at him intensely with a hand resting on the handle of his cutlass.

"How…how long have I been here?" Klaus finally asked, eyes on Caroline because she made the fog go away.

"Two days." Caroline answered, the only person in the room not looking at him like he was a monster. Rebekah was still crying softly against Kol. "The sedative that Wes – Dr. Maxfield – gave you was a lot stronger than we anticipated."

Klaus nodded his head slowly, trying to absorb the information and keep the rage at bay.

"And did I…hurt anyone else?"

"Besides Wes, no." Caroline assured him. "Everyone else is safe. The town leaders know what's going on and so does Stefan, Damon, Elena, Lexi and basically everyone else from both of our groups. They all just want you to get better."

"Get better, that's rich." Klaus scoffed sarcastically, feeling the fog start to come back in, but he grit his teeth and pushed it back away, shaking his head. He put a finger to his temple and breathed in deeply, the room silent with tension. "How um…how did this happen?"

"There was an open wound on your wrist." Caroline said. "Rebekah said that an Infected touched you there, so its Infected skin cells went directly into your bloodstream which is why the nose bleed happened much earlier than usual."

Klaus took deep breaths in and out, resting his forehead against the bars and trying to make his brain just think the way it was _supposed_ to. It was an endless cycle of being angry for no good reason then realizing that it was ridiculous to be so angry and getting frustrated about it which just led to even _more_ anger.

"And I can't…I can't leave here?" He finally asked softly, looking up at Caroline from under his eyelashes.

Caroline's mouth opened but no words came out. She closed it shut and looked up and away from him to blink away the tears she refused to let him see.

"Not…not yet." She said, trying to put on a positive tone. "But Wes is working on the cure, and he's getting closer every day."

"But you said he stopped the Infection." Klaus countered quickly with a pleading gaze. "If he stopped the Infection you don't have to lock me up like this."

"Klaus you're _sick_." Caroline said painfully. "You know I want nothing more than to be holding you in my arms, but we just can't until you're better."

"Caroline," He laughed bitterly, "Do you honestly think I could ever hurt you? Or my brothers or sisters or friends?"

"I don't think you would ever hurt me Klaus." She said quickly and honestly, stepping close to him but then stopping and eyeing the bars carefully, a flash of fear on her face that cut Klaus to the very core. "We don't think you would hurt any of us, we're just taking precautions." She added firmly.

"I'm not a monster." Klaus said quietly, eyes manic.

"Of _course_ you're not a monster –"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE ONE?" He cut her off with a roar, a vein popping out in his forehead as he shoved against the bars with all of his might, his face getting redder by the second.

Caroline jumped away from the cell in terror as she watched Klaus transform into someone else entirely in a matter of seconds. Kol moved to step in front of Rebekah and block her from the sight of their brother and Elijah grabbed the handle of his cutlass fully and pulled Caroline back yet again.

"Niklaus!" Elijah boomed in his trademark authoritative voice, stepping up to Klaus just far enough away that his brother couldn't reach out and grab him. "Control yourself!"

Klaus stopped screaming and thrashing as he stared at his brother with his jaw clenched shut so tight it hurt. His face was twitching of its own accord and as he looked past Elijah and saw the other three people in the room that he _knew_ he cared about with terrified expressions on their faces, he let out a shaky breath.

"Oh God." He said in a trembling voice, stumbling away from the bars and further back into the cell. "I'm Infected, I'm…I'm sorry I…"

"It's okay Nik." Rebekah said to him, stepping from behind Kol so he could see her fully. She looked healthier than she had in months yet something was still…_off_ about his little sister that he couldn't quite put a finger on. "You're going to get better. I promise."

Klaus stared at her with wide eyes and gulped, not saying anything for a few moments.

"You need to leave." He addressed everyone in the room.

"We're not going anywhere." Kol said immediately. "You're our brother Nik, we're going to –"

"Leave!" Klaus interrupted his brother with a shout, silencing him. "I have absolutely no control over anything I say or do so just get out before I say every vile thing I'm thinking about all of you!"

Everyone was quiet, the air so thick it was stifling.

"Klaus." Caroline suddenly spoke, making him snap his gaze to hers.

Seeing the fear hidden behind her deep blue eyes almost broke him right then and there. In all the time they had been together, despite every awful thing he had told her about himself, she had _never_ _once_ looked at him with fear. And now he had become the thing he feared the most: capable of hurting her.

"Leave, Caroline." He whispered. "Leave before I hurt you."

"No, I won't –"

"Please!" He screamed, breathing heavily and on the verge of a complete and total panic attack. "Just leave." He added in a quieter, more defeated tone.

Nobody moved at first, but eventually Kol wrapped an arm around Rebekah's shoulders and pulled her away as she sniffled and tried to blink away tears to no avail. Elijah also encouraged Caroline to leave but made sure not to touch her out of fear that Klaus would scream at him again. Klaus and Caroline were still locked in an intense stare, neither of them knowing what words to say.

"Caroline." Elijah said softly. "We should do as Niklaus asks."

She gulped, taking in a deep shaky breath as she looked over her shoulder at him and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right out." She said. At Elijah's pointed look she added, "I'll be fine, he would never hurt me, Infection or not. Just give me a few minutes."

He sighed and gave Klaus one last look before nodding and stepping out of the room. As soon as it was shut behind him Caroline looked back to the man she loved with all of her heart.

Nothing was said for about a full minute.

"Are there others?" Klaus finally asked, looking up at her sadly. "Others like me?"

"Yes." She said quietly, crossing her arms at kicking at the floor aimlessly. "Two others. Enzo's girlfriend and Dr. Maxfield's son."

"Enzo?"

"The um, the guy that came out and led us into the lab." She clarified. "The British one. He tried to pull you off of Wes when you were, uh…"

"Oh." Klaus said cynically. "The one that called you 'love' how could I forget?"

"He's just a friend." Caroline said sternly, making Klaus give her a bitter laugh, the darker, more Infected side of him reemerging. "If even that, he's the one that brought us to Whitmore."

"Well I guess I should thank him then." Klaus remarked sarcastically, holding out his arms. "He helped reunite me with my girlfriend and then flirted with her too. Going above and beyond the call of duty, that one."

"Stop it." Caroline said quickly and firmly, making Klaus lower his arms slowly. She took a small step closer to him but was still a safe distance away from the bars. "I will not let you be beaten by this Infection." She said, more assertive than he had ever seen her. "I will _not_ sit back and watch you be destroyed by the very cells in your body after I have survived hell and back a _hundred_ times over to see you again." She took yet another step forward, getting close to the danger zone. "And I absolutely refuse to lose you ever again." She finally added, voice much softer.

Klaus stared at her in awe, the fog lifting and being replaced by the utter love and devotion she obviously held for him. He started to step towards her but then cringed at the thought of hurting her and forced himself to stay back.

"You're different." He finally said, making her cock her head at him in confusion. "You're…stronger."

She looked down and shook her head with a light laugh, and Klaus hoped and prayed that one day he would be given the privilege to hear her actual laugh again. The laugh where she throws her head back and her blonde waves tumble behind her and her eyes squint shut and she covers up her mouth as she starts to squeak, embarrassed at the sounds she makes even though he always thought were adorable.

This laugh though, it was a forced, weak, exhausted laugh.

"Stronger." Caroline repeated, turning the word over in her head. "I guess you could put it that way." She looked back up at him. "The past eight months has tested me in ways I never even imagined. I've been almost killed more times than I can count, and I don't even want to _think_ about how many times I've been the one doing the killing." He visibly flinched at that mental image but she continued on. "The first month or so I was so completely dependent on everyone else to survive it was pathetic. Then I realized…I was like that even before The Outbreak. I constantly needed other people around me to reassure me, to convince me I wasn't doing anything wrong, to tell me I was a good person so I would believe it. But The Outbreak was good for one thing and one thing only and that was teaching me how to survive on my own."

Klaus looked down at his feet in shame, though he wasn't sure what for. It was almost as if Caroline was saying she didn't really need him at all.

"So I trained." Caroline continued. "I learned how to defend myself and take care of my friends so that I could survive for one reason and one reason only. And that reason…" She paused, "Was you."

It was completely silent as the two lovers looked at one another with more emotion than they had even given or received in their lives.

"And now that I have you back," Caroline continued with an unwavering voice, "I won't let you go. And neither will Elijah, or Rebekah, or Kol. It's your turn now."

She stepped forward without abandon then, leaning against the bars and making Klaus look away and step back in fear of what he might do to her no matter how bad he wanted to rush at her and kiss her senseless.

"It's your turn to learn how to survive." She continued resolutely. "To learn how to beat this. You're the strongest man I know Klaus. So you better _act like it_."

Klaus' jaw clenched tightly and his eyes glassed over as the fog started to crowd in around his view of Caroline. She wasn't the one going through this, how dare she tell him how to fight it? How dare she order him around like this the first time they've seen each other in months? The fog started to get denser and his hands balled up into fists, his jaw clenching.

"Because I love you." Caroline said as she saw him gradually losing control once again. His stature immediately softened, his hands loosening by his sides and his jaw unclenching. "And I need you to be okay. If you won't fight for yourself or for your siblings, then fight for _me_. Because The Outbreak has already proven that I can't live without you. I can survive, sure. But I can't truly live unless I have you by my side."

It was quiet once again and Caroline smiled at him weakly before taking a few steps back towards the door. Klaus immediately responded by taking matching steps forward, desperate for her to stay and keep the fog at bay.

"So right now your only job is to fight the Infection." She said as she walked backwards, never breaking eye contact with him. "And my job is going to be finding the cure. Because I love you." She emphasized those last three words and Klaus smiled so genuinely neither of them could believe it. "I love you, Klaus. No matter what. Just keep remembering that."

With that being said, she stepped out of the door and finally let the tears fall where he couldn't see them.

And Klaus managed to keep the fog at bay for about thirty seconds before it overcame him and he started screaming.

**######**

**A/N: Pretty long and painful chapter with some one-on-one Klaroline for you guys :) The next major plot point will be announced in the next chapter so that's super exciting. Please review! You guys are awesome! xoxo**


	11. Chapter 11 - Counterpart

**Chapter 11 – Counterpart **

**A/N: Okay in this chapter we go from angst to fluff and then back to angst so just…prepare yourself. And remember to review! Love you guys, enjoy!**

######

_"__Stefan!" Caroline shouted in frustration as she burst into Stefan's lavish one-bedroom apartment using the key he had given her months ago. "Stefan Salvatore I swear I'm going to kill you!"_

_She barged into his home, straight into the living room where it looked like the only light was on. She grit her teeth as she saw the back of Stefan's head laying back on the couch. She took in a deep breath and stomped into the room and stood right in front of him._

_"__You know Stefan, we've known each other a long time." She started dramatically. "And I think you know that I am capable of many things, and being patient is one of those things. But seriously?" She stomped her foot in frustration. "You made me wait at the restaurant for an hour! Steroline hasn't hung out in forever and I just wanted one night where we could –"_

_She froze, cutting herself off as she looked at the man in front of her – as in, really looked at him. _

_Stefan was completely wrecked. His hair was a mess (which was a tell-tale sign that something was wrong), his eyes were glazed over, he was leaned back on the couch precariously, his face more somber than usual._

_"__Stefan?" She asked in a much softer tone of voice, making him finally look up at her. Her heart could have broken right then as she looked into his eyes, seeing a pain inside of him that she had never seen before. _

_"__Sorry, Caroline." He said softly, chuckling sadly and looking back down into his drink. "I uh, forgot about dinner."_

_Caroline sighed and walked over, sitting down next to him and pursing her lips in concern._

_"__What happened?" She asked. "Did Damon do something?"_

_Stefan barked out a laugh, taking another swig of his drink and hissing at the burn. _

_"__No, no. For once my big brother isn't the one to blame for my self-loathing misery."_

_"__Then what happened? Let me help, Stefan."_

_"__You can't." He said simply. "You can't help me, it's…it's stupid."_

_"__If something is making you upset then it's not stupid." Caroline said firmly, grabbing Stefan's chin and making him face her. "Tell me what's wrong."_

_He looked down to avoid meeting her gaze, blinking a few times._

_"__It's Lexi." He said in a barely audible whisper. Caroline was patient as he took a few deep breaths. "She called me earlier tonight and she uh…she told me that she and Lee were getting pretty serious."_

_Caroline's mouth parted in understanding. Two weeks ago she had figured out that Stefan had feelings for Lexi and had been encouraging him to pursue it, but he'd been refusing because she was in a relationship with another guy named Lee._

_"__She said she loved him." Stefan finally spoke sadly. "She's in love with him and…I guess that's that." He pursed his lips and tried to give Caroline a smile, but it was fairly pathetic._

_Caroline had seen Stefan in a lot of bad situations. She had been there for the whole Damon-dating-Elena scandal back in Mystic Falls. She was there when his Uncle Zach died the week before high school graduation. She was even the one that helped Stefan tell Damon that he was leaving their joint law firm to go work with Mikaelson Arts. _

_But never once had she seen her best friend this heartbroken. Not even over Elena._

_Caroline took a deep breath then and clapped her hands together. _

_"__Well." She said in a strong voice. "It's obvious that a few things are in order. First, we're going to need a lot more drinks. Second, we're going to order a bunch of greasy pizza, and don't worry I know you like pepperoni so I'll order extra. And third, we are going to watch one of those incredibly stupid comedy movies with tasteless jokes that you like so much."_

_"__What?" Stefan asked in a confused tone. "What are you –"_

_"__Because I've been through breakups." Caroline interrupted him matter-of-factly, standing up and smoothing out her shirt. "And trust me, booze and pizza and movies is the tell-tale cure."_

_"__Caroline I'm not going through a breakup." He said sarcastically, slightly annoyed with her positivity that he usually found so endearing. "Lexi sees me as just a friend and that's all she'll ever see me as."_

_"__And you know what, that might be true." Caroline smarted off right back to him, making his eyebrows shoot up. "And if so, then that just means that there is a girl that is a million times better for you out there somewhere! But until the day comes where you're not pining over a girl that has a boyfriend, you and I are going to drink and eat pizza and laugh at bad jokes. Got it?"_

_Stefan was taken aback at her authoritative tone and he floundered for what to say._

_"__Uh, okay. Yes ma'am." He finally settled on._

_Caroline exhaled sharply and put her hands on her hips. "Good." She said quickly. "Because I am your best friend and I don't like seeing you sad. So tonight, we're going to be immature and unhealthy and not think about love at all. Because no matter what happens in our love lives, we'll always have each other. Right?" _

_Stefan smiled genuinely at her then, proud to call this amazing woman with almost superhuman powers of optimism his best friend._

_"__Yeah, Care." He said. "We'll always have each other."_

######

As Caroline exited Klaus' private cell room – she was adamant about him not being in the same room as Maggie and Aaron – the tears fell freely and she was startled when she felt someone's arms wrap around her comfortingly. When she looked and saw who it was though she immediately relaxed.

Stefan didn't say a word because he didn't have to. When Klaus first woke up, Enzo had gone back up to the outside and told Caroline's friends what was happening. Caroline hadn't made an appearance to anyone except Klaus' immediate family, refusing to leave his cell until he woke up. So when Enzo said she would be leaving soon, Stefan was the first to rush downstairs to where she would be.

"Stefan." Caroline choked out, burying her face into her best friend's chest and holding onto the front of his shirt for dear life. She was shaking, but it was as if her eyes were all dried out. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream really, but the emotional toll was so great she couldn't really do anything.

"Shh." Stefan soothed, smoothing a hand over her hair. "It's okay, just breathe Care. He's going to be fine."

Before she could respond they both heard a pained scream behind the steel door, obviously Klaus. Caroline and Stefan both flinched and Caroline choked on her tears yet again. His screaming continued, the sound awful and grating on both of their hearts.

"Stefan, I…"

"Hey, come on." Stefan said when he saw that Caroline was clearly in tremendous pain. He put his arm around her shoulders and started to lead her up and out of the lab.

As they stepped outside into the town, Caroline squinted at the light. She had been using the bathroom and washing up in the lab for the past two days, and Katherine had been bringing both she, Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah clothes and food so that they wouldn't be gone whenever Klaus woke up.

As Caroline looked about the community she felt sick to her stomach. These people were walking around so carefree – toting water buckets and trading vegetables, little kids were running around. It seemed so…picturesque. And yet nobody seemed to know or care that there were three people right under their feet suffering an unbearable agony within their own mind. Not to mention their loved ones were facing the battle of their lives as well.

Caroline took in a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair, feeling Stefan's eyes on her worriedly. She glanced up at him and almost fell apart right then and there. It was _Stefan_, her best friend since middle school. The guy whose first kiss she stole when she was thirteen because she wanted to see what it was like. The guy who threatened to beat up Damon if he so much as _looked_ her wrong when they went to Homecoming together. Her escort to Miss Mystic Falls her first year running when she was so nervous she could have puked.

Caroline's best friend in the entire world was standing right in front of her, very much alive, and she hadn't even had a proper reunion with him since he got to Whitmore yet he was comforting her like they hadn't not seen each other in eight months.

Stefan had just opened his mouth to say something when Caroline cut him off by throwing her arms around him in complete and total abandon, hugging him like she'd never hugged anyone before. Stefan made an "oof" sound as she knocked him backwards a few feet, then chuckled as he hugged her back just as tightly.

"Hey, Caroline."

"Hey." She said simply, holding on to him just a few moments longer.

When they separated, he was smiling down at her and she couldn't help but smile back.

"So." She said, not knowing what to say to her best friend for the first time ever. "You're not dead."

Stefan laughed at that – as in, bent over and had to hold his stomach kind of laughed. Caroline started to laugh as well, her shoulders shaking.

"No," Stefan finally breathed out in between chuckles, "I'm not dead. And hey, neither are you! What are the odds that everyone in our little group survived?"

"Well, not everyone." Caroline said somberly. "Jenna died the night of The Outbreak. And Jeremy's girlfriend Anna about a month later."

"Oh right, Elena was telling me that." He said, all the laughter gone between them.

"So have you and Damon been catching up on brother bonding time?" Caroline asked, changing the subject as they started to walk towards the well, staring up at the patrols along the wall. "Trading zombie war stories and stuff like that?"

Stefan chuckled, shaking his head. "No, no, nothing like that. We don't really talk about anything since The Outbreak. Nobody around here does. It's like a nice little bubble of ignorant bliss."

"Yeah." Caroline said quietly, looking down at her feet and kicking the dusty ground. "Well I wouldn't know about that."

"Hey." Stefan stopped her, touching her elbow gently and turning her to face him. "Klaus is going to be fine. We both know him, we know he won't go down without a fight if it means that he being with you again is on the line."

"Stefan, you don't have to –"

"No I'm serious." He interrupted. "I've spent the last eight months with Klaus, and I can safely tell you that _everything_ he did was to get back to you."

Caroline was silent, eyes wide as she absorbed the weight of Stefan's words and what they meant to her.

"Sure, he was also protecting me, and Elijah and Rebekah, and even Matt sometimes. But at the end of the day his sole focus that kept him going each day even when he wanted to give up was _you_."

Caroline felt like she could pass out. All this time that she had been fighting to survive, she had refused to dwell on Klaus for her own selfish reasons. And now Stefan was telling her that she was all Klaus ever thought about that whole time. She felt horrible, like she had done the worst possible thing to the love of her life.

But she didn't tell Stefan any of that. She simply gulped and looked up at him with a weak smile, nodding at him. Stefan saw through her façade but smiled back at her all the same, holding his arm out for her to take which she did, just like old times.

"So tell me." Caroline finally said with an obviously forced cheerful tone. "We obviously know how the apocalypse has been treating _my_ love life lately, but what about you? Have you made a move on Lexi yet?"

"Oh shutup." Stefan groaned as he rolled his eyes, making Caroline laugh and pester him as if they weren't both facing some of their worst nightmares come to life.

######

_"__Agh!" Klaus screamed as he threw his phone at the wall across from him in his office. He was absolutely fuming, his heart pounding in fury. His fists were clenched and his chest was rising up and down rapidly._

_"__Niklaus?" Elijah poked his head into his brother's office, eyebrows raising as he saw the state he was in. He stepped into the office fully, closing the door softly behind him. "And what did that phone ever do to you?" He asked calmly._

_"__Get out, 'Lijah." Klaus said venomously, glaring at his brother. "Now is not a wise time to be around me."_

_"__And the fact that you think that means it is extremely wise for me to do just the opposite." Elijah replied, giving off a somewhat sarcastic smile as he leaned against the door casually with his hands in his pockets. "What happened?"_

_"__Atticus Shane happened." Klaus hissed, putting his palms flat on the front of his desk and leaning on it. "Somehow that bastard got my phone number and decided to give me a ring. He wants me to get back in."_

_Elijah pursed his lips, looking down at the floor for a few tense moments._

_"__And what did you say to him?" The older brother finally asked._

_Klaus snapped his head up in disbelief._

_"__What did I say? I said for him to bugger off, that's what I said!" He stood up to his full height and walked around his desk to better look Elijah in the eye. "Do you really think that I would jeopardize everything I've achieved in the past three years? Everything that you and Finn have helped me get through, to get away from my past?"_

_"__I don't think you would intentionally." Elijah said evenly. "But I also know that the work you did with Atticus Shane as a teenager and in your early twenties was a very destructive – and addictive – spiral. And I simply do not wish for you to go down that path again."_

_"__Well I won't." Klaus spat, turning on his heel and going to look out the window that spanned across the entire back wall of his office overlooking the city. "I have come too far to go backwards into that life again." He said bitterly, raising a fist up to lean against the window. "I spilt too much blood in my early years and I am finally redeeming myself for it. So no, Elijah. I will not be taking Atticus up on his offer."_

_"__I'm glad." Elijah said sincerely, looking at the tense form of his younger brother that he cared so deeply for._

_Klaus' late teenage years and early twenties had been marred by a man named Atticus Shane who ran shady underhanded art deals. But as Klaus kept working for Shane just to piss off his abusive not-blood-related father, he soon learned that Shane was also in the business of dealing weapons, which was a dangerous business to be a part of. In four years, Klaus had done more awful things than he liked to remember. And what's worse was that he had been good at it – so good in fact, that Shane wanted him back in badly._

_"__But I must ask," Elijah continued in a curious voice after a few minutes of silence, "Along with your devotion to the family, would a certain kind-hearted and optimistic blonde have anything to do with your refusal to Shane's offer?"_

_Klaus smirked even though his back was to Elijah. Of course Caroline played a part in his answer to Atticus' phone call. That was the main reason he had been so angry about it. Klaus was finally at a place in his life where he was truly happy. He had a career he loved, he got to see his siblings (other than Kol) on a daily basis, and most of all he had a beautiful woman who loved him with all of her heart and soul despite his misgivings. And for someone who had refused to love for so long, Klaus was learning more each day that love was actually the strongest defense he could ever have against anything life threw at him now or in the future._

_Klaus chuckled, looking down at the busy streets below._

_"__Elijah." He said softly. "Caroline has everything to do with it."_

######

It took about ten minutes for the screaming and thrashing against the cell bars to become tiresome, and Klaus soon stepped back away with his chest heaving up and down in anger. His hands were red, his knuckles bleeding from punching the wall.

He was just so _angry_. There was no way to describe the rage he was feeling towards people that he _knew_ he loved. He loved Rebekah, and Kol, and Elijah. His siblings were his foundation, they kept him going, kept him on solid ground. It had been like that since they were children. But now all he could think about them was how horrible they were for locking him up in here like a common animal.

And Caroline – oh, _Caroline_. She was the light in his life, she had kept him going for the entirety of The Outbreak thus far, and now it was like he couldn't figure out _why_. She said she loved him, but if she truly did love him, she would have let him out of the suffocating cell and not look at him like he was a monster.

But the most frustrating thing Klaus was facing was the small voice in the very back of his mind, just barely cutting through the fog of rage. The small voice that was constantly insisting that he wasn't thinking clearly, that it was just the Infection talking and not his rational self. It was as if his brain was being pulled two separate directions and he couldn't just make it _stop_.

As the two different tracks continued their collision course inside his mind, Klaus brought his hands up to the side of his head and knelt down on the ground.

"Stop it." He muttered angrily. "Stop it, just stop it!" He screamed, shaking his head from side to side.

The voice in the back of his mind kept pushing its way towards the front, making itself more known to the fog that brought out his wrath.

And then suddenly Klaus faced the worst agony he'd ever faced. No pain would ever compare to the feeling of his mind tearing apart at the very seams into two separate units, one capable of rational thinking and the other hating everything and everyone – even those closest to him.

As the separation finished Klaus collapsed, sweat pouring down his face and his body feeling drained. It felt as if someone had stabbed him in his very soul, it was indescribable. And now that it was done, Klaus felt…empty. Like something had been taken from him. But now he could see a bit clearer, he had more of the urgency to fight like Caroline had asked him to.

"Ah yes, the lovely Caroline. She is just…_delectable_, isn't she?"

A terrifyingly familiar voice suddenly spoke making Klaus jump and look up. What he saw made him scramble back in complete and utter terror, eyes blown wide and mouth parted in fear.

"Oh no need to be afraid." The figure said as they sat casually on the cot in his cell.

"Wh…What are you?" Klaus gulped, trembling despite himself.

They laughed, throwing their head back manically.

"Well isn't it obvious?" They asked sarcastically, leaning forward and making eye contact. "I'm _you_."

And sure enough, the figure was Klaus _himself_. A different version of him though, that much was obvious. "Other" Klaus was wearing the exact same clothes, had the same amount of stubble, same scars and wounds, same hair, same jawline. The only physical difference between them was their eyes. Other Klaus' eyes were the same shade of blue, but there were dark purple rings all around them. So much so that he looked sickly. He looked…

"Infected?" Other Klaus supplied, making his counterpart's eyes shoot up in surprise. "Right, guess I could have mentioned that. I can read your thoughts. Well, not really read your thoughts, but your thoughts _are_ my thoughts, because I am you. Did that make sense? Well of course it did, it made sense in my head so it has to make sense it your head because we're the same person."

"You're a hallucination." Klaus said to Other Klaus in a shaky voice. "I'm hallucinating, this isn't real."

"Well of course I'm a hallucination." Other Klaus said matter-of-factly, standing up from the cot and walking over to the cell bars, putting his hands on them and looking around the room. "However, though I am a figment of your own screwed up mind, I can assure you that this is _very_ real."

Other Klaus looked down at his duplicate that was still on the floor condescendingly.

"It's actually fairly interesting." Other Klaus spoke confidently. "You see, you are so adamant about following our lovely girlfriend's orders to 'fight the Infection' that you literally split your own mind in two of your own free will. There's you, rational and…weak." He said in disgust. "And then there's me! Obviously stronger, obviously filled with…power." His eyes widened and he smirked evilly.

"This isn't real, this isn't real." Klaus ignored Other Klaus, shaking his head and pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes.

"But here is my question." Other Klaus continued, tapping his index finger against his chin mockingly. "Well, _our_ question I guess you could say. If you and I are the same person, just two different mindsets, then which one of us is in this actual moment?"

Klaus looked up at his vile counterpart in confusion.

"Okay let me clarify." Other Klaus said as if he were annoyed that he had to explain himself. "If someone were to walk in here right now, our beautiful girlfriend for example! Would she see you there on the ground in a pathetic, or me standing up walking around? Am I _your_ hallucination, or are you _mine_?"

And as Klaus stared up at Other Klaus, he didn't even realize that the evil expression he was looking at took over his own features, and Other Klaus stared back at him in fear.

#####

**A/N: Oh. Okay.**

**Review please! xoxo**


	12. Chapter 12 - Violence Is All I Know

**Chapter 12 – Violence Is All I Know**

**A/N: Fairly long and painful chapter ahead, enjoy! And review too, I read them all!**

######

_"__Okay tell me how long it's been since we hung out just the two of us?" Elena asked as Caroline plopped down onto the couch beside her, bowl of popcorn in hand. "Because it feels like forever."_

_"__Oh gosh I don't know." Caroline replied, biting her lip in thought. "Like two months?"_

_Elena took a moment and thought about it as well. _

_"__No, it's been three months!" She finally shouted. "Because I came over the night after Damon and I had our three year anniversary."_

_Caroline threw some popcorn in her mouth and looked at her friend curiously._

_"__How the hell do you remember that?" She asked incredulously through a mouthful of food._

_"__Because I was sore as hell from when Damon and I –"_

_"__Ew, ew, ew!" Caroline interrupted, squinting her eyes shut as if that would block out the mental image Elena was painting. "Don't even go there 'Lena, that is so gross!"_

_Elena just laughed and took the popcorn bowl for herself. _

_"__Hey you're the one who asked." She said simply. "And really Care? Damon and I have been together for three years and you still hate him? I thought we were past that."_

_Caroline rolled her eyes. "I don't hate him Elena, I'm just…not his biggest fan. I was the biggest fan of Stelena when we were in high school so sorry for still being bitter that you chose the bad brother over the good one. But hey, who am I to judge?"_

_"__Exactly, you're not. Especially since you're the one dating the big and bad Klaus Mikaelson." Elena teased, nudging her friend's shoulder. "How is that going by the way? I feel like we never get to talk about boys anymore. Well, you talk to Katherine, but not me."_

_"__Elena, don't be like that." Caroline pleaded, seeing the look of hurt on her friend's face. "Katherine and I see each other more because we're each dating a Mikaelson brother, it's not personal at all. And we're going through similar things, being in relatively new relationships and all."_

_"__Even though Kat was sneaking around with Elijah for like three months before anyone knew." Elena grumbled._

_"__But the point is," Caroline continued, "You've already been through with Damon what I'm going through with Klaus. You know, seeing past the bad and focusing on the good." Elena nodded in understanding. "And Katherine is on the flip side, she's having to deal with Elijah seeing her as a good person for once. So it's just easier for us to talk to each other about them."_

_The brunette sighed and shook her head, glancing briefly at the TV where an Audrey Hepburn movie was playing. _

_"__Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I just…I miss you. We were so close in high school and when we first started at NYU, but now it's like we never see each other anymore. I mean we see each other, but we don't hang out."_

_"__I know." Caroline said honestly. "And it's because we both have men in our lives that we're head over heels for. And even though friends always come first, when you're in love…" She trailed off._

_"__You want to spend all of your time with them." Elena finished for her. "It's a sad truth that we pretend isn't real to make us feel better. But I get it, I really do. It's hard to be apart from the person that you're thinking about all the time."_

_"__Yeah." Caroline said softly, both girls staring off into space as they thought about the bad boys who had captured their hearts._

######

"Enzo, move." Caroline demanded, glaring at the man who had become her sorta-kinda friend over the past few days.

"Caroline, no." He shot back at her sarcastically, giving his trademark mischievous smile as he blocked the door that led to Klaus' cell. "I'm doing this for your own good love, just try and trust me."

"Trust you?" Caroline asked incredulously, laughing. "How can I trust you? You're trying to keep me away from Klaus when he needs someone with him! I haven't seen him in three damn days, so _move_!"

Enzo's eyebrows shot up in surprise as the pretty blonde in front of him cursed. Despite how annoyed she obviously was with him, he honestly had good intentions in keeping her from Klaus for the time being.

"Look gorgeous, I understand that he's your one true epic love or whatever you want to call it," He said cynically, "But it's my job as your…friend…" He looked at her for confirmation to use the term and she rolled her eyes and nodded, "To make sure that you don't lose your mind anytime soon either. He's doing…not good at the moment so just give it a few more days before you start using your visiting hours."

"Enzo you don't get it, okay?" Caroline retorted. "He needs me, he probably feels like I've abandoned him! I can't take one more day of just walking around and bugging Wes and seeing all my friends acclimating perfectly to life here while I don't know what to do with myself!"

"You think I don't get it?" Enzo asked slowly in disbelief, making Caroline realize her mistake and take a step back shamefully. "I don't get it?!" He repeated in a raised voice. "Maggie has been in a cell for three months, your man has been in there for just three days! So believe me love, I get it."

"I know, I know." She started to say.

"No, you don't know." He shouted back. "From what you've told me, Klaus wasn't always a saint was he?" Caroline froze for a few seconds then slowly nodded her head. "Alright then, so you've seen him at his low points then, haven't you? You were there to pick up the pieces whenever he started to lose it, you reminded him every day that he was worthy of love, that he deserve to be happy. Didn't you?"

Caroline said nothing.

"Didn't you?!" Enzo roared.

"Yes, yes okay!" Caroline said quickly. "I was the one that kept him from doing awful things, I was his rock."

"Exactly." He said in a much calmer tone even though the fury and frustration was still in his dark brown eyes. "Then seeing him like this may be a shock, but it isn't too much of a stretch. You see though," He stepped closer to Caroline, "Maggie is the Caroline to my Klaus. She was _my_ rock, she was the one that kept me from doing every awful thing I ever wanted and could have gotten away with. The only reason I'm good now is because of her."

Caroline looked up at Enzo sadly, hating the thought of being in his shoes.

"And so to see my sweet, kind Maggie with so much hatred in her heart." Enzo stammered, eyes glassing over and lip trembling. "It's the worst imaginable pain in the world. And for a long time after Wes first administered the antidote, I stayed in that room with her every second of the day, thinking that I could get through to her the way you think you can get through to Klaus."

He took yet another step forward, so close their chests were almost touching. Yet the proximity was completely innocent, Caroline could tell that he was honestly concerned for her well-being at that moment.

"And it almost drove me bloody mad." He whispered. "And I realized after about a month of torturing myself every single day that the only way I was going to help her is if I kept being the person she helped me become before she was Infected. And now you have to do the same. If you go in there every day it will break you into a hundred pieces Caroline because he is going to _hate_ you."

Caroline visibly flinched but he didn't stop.

"The Infection is going to make him think that you never loved him, that you lied to him about everything, that you're cheating on him, that you are the worst human being to walk on the earth."

"Stop, stop it please." Caroline begged.

"No, I won't." He retorted instantly. "Because I care about you, Caroline. You and I are in a similar boat and I know how much you miss him, how much it hurts to be separated from him yet again after so long trying to be reunited. But you just have to hold on a little bit longer okay? Not just for him, but for _you_."

The two kindred souls stared at one another, pained expressions mirrored. Caroline was just about to speak again when they heard people coming down the stairs into the lab. She took a deep breath and stepped back, smoothing out her hair as Wes, Katherine, and Elijah both came into the room.

"So you're trying to make the cells attack themselves?" Katherine was asking Wes, holding Elijah's hand tightly.

"But how will that work?" Elijah asked inquisitively. "Won't the Infected cells start destroying the healthy ones as well?"

Wes sighed, briefly glancing over at Caroline and Enzo who were also listening in.

"Yes, that's what I'm trying to figure out right now." He said exhaustedly. "As soon as I am able to get the Infected cells to target their own kind, we'll have a cure. You can't fight against yourself."

"And when will that be?" Caroline asked, stepping up to the doctor to which he immediately stepped back. She had a tendency to be quite hostile with the man – justifiably so, of course.

"Well I-I would say soon." Wes replied vaguely, making everyone give him a pointed look.

"How soon is soon?" Caroline hissed, stalking closer to the man and balling up her fists. "Because for someone who claims he's a genius you're taking a really long time fixing one little issue. So what the _hell_ is taking you so long?"

"Caroline, relax." Katherine snapped at her friend, stepping forward in between her and the doctor. "Killing him won't help anything so just chill."

"Yeah well if it were Elijah in there you would be telling a different story!" Caroline shouted in her friend's face. Her eyes widened and she took a step back as she realized what she had just said. Katherine didn't flinch whatsoever though, just took the insult in stride. "Katherine I didn't –"

"Maybe you should take a walk." Katherine interrupted firmly, never breaking eye contact.

A few tense seconds passed, the atmosphere of the lab stifling.

"Yeah, okay." Caroline finally whispered, glancing over her shoulder at Enzo briefly.

"Right then." He said loudly and unabashedly. "I think I might join you. Come on then gorgeous, let's go see if we can get up to any nasty business in Perfect Town."

Caroline's shoulders were hunched over as Enzo led her upstairs and outside, rambling incessantly the whole way to try and ease her guilt for snapping at Katherine.

As soon as the duo was gone, Elijah turned to his wife.

"She's under stress, Katerina." He said simply.

"I don't care." Katherine snapped. "Everyone around here is treating her as poor, frail Caroline whose boyfriend is Infected. And yeah, they're right, but I'm going to treat her harshly so that she can take the inevitable pain that's ahead. Because Klaus is going to be awful to her, we all know it. And I'm doing it because I love her, and I don't really care if she understands my methods or not."

Elijah smiled, reaching forward and touching his wife's face affectionately.

"You amaze me." He whispered. "You're such a better person than you allow your friends and family to see. Why don't you allow them to see this side of you?"

"You know," Wes said in annoyance just as Katherine was about to respond, "This is really touching and all, but can you two save it for when you're alone and not in my lab?"

Katherine rolled her eyes dramatically, pursing her lips and spinning on her heel to face Wes, who was looking up at them from over his glasses.

"Look, if I didn't care so much about Klaus getting better, I would kill you myself for starting The Outbreak." She hissed, making Wes' eyes widen in fear. Katherine had a knack for that, striking the fear of God in just about anyone. "But since I _do_ want Klaus to get better, I won't kill you. At least not yet."

"Um…thank you?" Wes said warily.

Katherine chuckled with an evil smirk, making Wes gulp in fear.

"Oh no. Thank _you_ for having the good sense to be frightened."

Elijah looked on at his fearsome wife with a fond smile. The Outbreak had done quite the opposite of breaking her spirit as it had done to so many others. In fact, his Katerina was fiercer now than she had been when they first met, which he never thought would have been possible.

"I would like to see my brother." Elijah suddenly spoke, his tone making it obvious that he wasn't asking a question but rather making a demand.

"Why would you want to do that?" Wes asked honestly. "I know he's your brother but Klaus has absolutely…lost it."

"What do you mean?" Katherine asked, stepping closer to the doctor just for her own amusement as he squirmed.

"I mean that as he attempted to fight the Infection within his hypothalamus, that portion of his brain split into two."

"His brain broke?" Katherine asked in disbelief.

"Well, metaphorically." Wes answered matter-of-factly. "To compensate for the intense amount of stress Klaus was putting on his own mind, it created a counterpart." At Katherine and Elijah's confused expressions he sighed and bit his lip. "Let me put it this way. If you're filling a pitcher of water and it's about to overflow and you can't turn off the faucet, what do you do?"

"Get another pitcher." Katherine answered obviously.

"Exactly."

"So you're saying that my brother has created an alternate version of himself to cope with the Infection?" Elijah asked quickly as he grasped what Wes was trying to tell them.

"That's precisely what I'm saying."

"And how do you know this?" Katherine asked skeptically. "I mean you don't exactly have an MRI machine here."

"Simple observation." The doctor replied. "Klaus is frantic, talking to himself, switching between personalities. It's as if he's borderline schizophrenic."

It was quiet, Katherine looked at her husband as his jaw tensed as he swallowed slowly, composing himself after receiving the shock of hearing what his brother was going through.

"That changes nothing." He finally said, pushing the sleeves of the dress shirt he had managed to find up to his elbows. "Niklaus is my brother and I wish to speak to him."

"Suit yourself." Wes shrugged, turning back to face the equations he was currently working on.

As Elijah started to walk to the door to Klaus' cell Katherine ran over to him and grabbed his arm.

"Elijah." She said to him, glancing over her shoulder at Wes before she looked back to her husband and lowered her voice. "Elijah you don't have to do this. Klaus is…he's not the same Klaus he's always been. I don't want you to have to see your brother hate you, there's no telling the kinds of things he will say."

Elijah smiled fondly down at her and wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him, brushing his lips against her forehead lingeringly. Katherine sighed and immediately relaxed at his familiar touch that she had missed so much over the past eight months. No matter how much time they had spent alone in the past three days, the sensation of simply being touched by her husband kept feeling brand new every time it happened.

"He is my brother, Katerina. And I have seen been there at his lowest points throughout his life, and this is just another one of them." Elijah whispered as he rested his forehead against hers. "I have been protecting Niklaus from various threats since we were children. That hasn't changed no matter the circumstances."

With that being said, Elijah turned and put his hand on the door handle, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to see.

"Just be careful." Katherine rushed out, making him look back at her concerned expression from over his shoulder. "I just got you back. So you better not get Infected."

Elijah grinned.

"I'll be back in your arms in twenty minutes at most, Katerina."

Katherine didn't even bother scolding him for the use of her birth given name as he stepped into the cell room and the door closed shut behind him. She let out a breath and ran her fingers through her hair, glancing into the mirror on the wall beside her and smirking at her own reflection. Even in the middle of the apocalypse she still managed to look hot.

"Well aren't you two just adorable." Wes muttered as he looked into his microscope.

Katherine turned on her heel and glared at his back before sighing and sauntering over to the stairs to leave. Before she did though she called back out over her shoulder, "Hey at least I'm getting laid."

######

_"__Name please?"_

_"__Elijah Mikaelson."_

_"__And you're posting bail for…?"_

_"__Niklaus Mikaelson." Elijah sighed, the scowl seemingly permanent on his youthful face. Getting a call at two in the morning on a Thursday night from his nineteen year old brother asking him to come bail him out of jail was not on the list of his favorite things to do._

_"__Right this way Mr. Mikaelson." The London police offer said as he walked out from behind the reception desk and started leading Elijah to his brother's cell. _

_Elijah heard Klaus before he saw him and he sighed in annoyance._

_"__You stupid bastards think you can lock me up like this?! Do you know who I am? I'm Klaus bloody Mikaelson, I'll kill each and every one of you!"_

_Elijah's annoyance turned to concern as his younger brother came into view, leaning against the bars of his cell and gripping them tightly as he screamed at the policemen just doing their job. Klaus' nose was bloodied, it could even be broken but Elijah couldn't tell for sure. His knuckles were cut and bruised and his shirt was ripped, splattered with blood. It worried Elijah that he didn't know if it was all Klaus' blood or someone else's. _

_"__Niklaus." Elijah said loudly, grabbing the attention of his teenage sibling that liked to think he was a mature adult._

_"__Well would you look at that!" Klaus shouted with a sarcastic smile as the officer unlocked his cell. "My big brother come to save the day yet again!"_

_"__Niklaus we're leaving." Elijah said firmly, grabbing his brother by the elbow to which Klaus immediately shook him off._

_"__Don't touch me." He growled, taking a few steps and then incidentally stumbling into another cell's bars, obviously not sober._

_"__For God's sake Niklaus." Elijah grumbled, grabbing his brother's arm without any protest this time. _

_He led Klaus out of the station and across the road before Klaus finally ripped his arm away from his brother's grip in annoyance._

_"__I can bloody walk, 'Lijah." He muttered, bracing himself against Elijah's nice black Audi._

_Elijah said nothing, simply standing on the empty sidewalk with a scowl on his face and his hands in the pockets of his slacks. He knew what was coming so he just waited. _

_"__Ah damn." Klaus mumbled as he stumbled past the car and puked into the grass a few feet away from them. Elijah sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. _

_He walked over to Klaus after a few moments and took the handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out to him wordlessly. Klaus chuckled. _

_"__Of course." He muttered, taking the handkerchief and wiping his mouth with it. "Even at two in the morning to come bail the rebel child out of jail, Elijah Mikaelson makes sure to be clad in suit and tie. And handkerchief too, of course."_

_"__Now is not the time to be mocking me Niklaus." Elijah snapped as Klaus rolled his eyes and threw the tissue into a trashcan nearby. It was dark and silent outside on the sidewalk where they stood, the only illumination coming from the yellow streetlights. "I could have left you in there for the night. Or better yet, I could have called Mikael."_

_Klaus' eyes widened and he gulped in fear at the prospect of his not biological father finding out that he had gotten arrested again. The last time it happened Mikael had broken three of his ribs. He'd rather not face that kind of wrath again._

_"__You didn't…you know…Did you?" Klaus asked, not able to finish the question._

_"__Of course not." Elijah said quickly, the disappointed expression still etched on his face. "What even happened tonight Niklaus?" He asked. "The officers said you got into yet another fight?"_

_Klaus kicked at the ground before leaning back against the boot of Elijah's car. _

_"__Some bugger made a nasty comment towards a girl at the bar we were in."_

_"__So you decided to bash his face in?" Elijah asked incredulously._

_"__Yes that's exactly what I did." Klaus shot back at him. "He was a right dick 'Lijah! What was I supposed to do?"_

_"__Not respond with violence! Niklaus," Elijah laughed exasperatedly, "Do you not see the downward spiral you're descending into? You sleep all day and drink yourself sick every night, you're fighting constantly, and don't think I don't know you're working with that scum Atticus Shane."_

_Klaus' eyes widened._

_"__How did you –"_

_"__Oh please Niklaus do not take me for a fool." He interrupted. "Do you not realize the repercussions your actions could have not only on you but on our entire family?"_

_"__Oh please!" Klaus shouted. "What do you mean 'our' family? You mean your family! You and Finn, the golden boys who do everything right in Mikael and Esther's eyes. And then of course Rebekah and Kol who can do no wrong. But where do I fit into this picture perfect family? Oh right, I'm the bastard son that's only usefulness is serving as Mikael's punching bag!"_

_Elijah was silent, the weight of Klaus' words pressing in on the both of them._

_"__I know you try your best to protect me." Klaus said quietly, eyes glassy even though this conversation had most certainly sobered him up. "I mean even poor Rebekah has tried to stand up to Mikael before, all of you have. But it's no use Elijah. How can you be surprised that I'm violent when violence is the only thing I know?"_

_Elijah was stunned at the rare display of emotion from the brother he was closest to. Klaus suddenly seemed to realize that he was especially vulnerable at that moment and he wiped his eyes furiously, putting that stereotypical teenager expression of stoicism and annoyance on his face._

_"__But whatever." He muttered, looking away from his brother. "You and Finn are moving to America to run that side of the business for Mikael next month anyway so what does it matter? You'll probably meet a lovely girl, get married, forget all about me."_

_"__Niklaus –"_

_"__No, no, Elijah go ahead! Just leave! With you gone Mikael will have every chance to kill me like he always says he wants to so just –"_

_Klaus was cut off as Elijah stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his brother, putting a hand on the back of his head and embracing his sibling as if his life depended on it._

_"__Mikael won't hear a word of this." Elijah assured Klaus, trying to keep his voice unwavering. "I'll call Esther and say you're staying with me for the next week to help me pack."_

_He released his brother then and held him at arm's length, meeting his brother's glassy eyed gaze. Klaus was shaking uncontrollably trying to keep his composure, but Elijah remained firm._

_"__I will not let anything happen to you Niklaus." The elder brother said in all seriousness. "I will die myself before I let Mikael lay a hand on you ever again."_

_Klaus never received another bruise from Mikael._

######

"Niklaus?" Elijah called out as he stepped into the room where Klaus was being held. He could see his brother's gaunt features sitting against the back wall of his cell with a knee drawn up to his chest and his arm laying casually over it. His eyes were closed as well. "Niklaus." He repeated a bit louder.

"I heard you the first time 'Lijah." Klaus grumbled without bothering to open his eyes. "Come to see the monster have you?"

"You are no monster, Niklaus." Elijah said confidently, walking around the safe area of the room.

"That's what you think." Klaus said in a voice just above a whisper, making Elijah freeze and look at his brother from the corner of his eye.

Klaus' eyes suddenly opened and a manic grin overtook his face. "I just thought of something 'Lijah." He said in a terrifyingly bright tone of voice, jumping up to a standing position and facing his brother from the back portion of the cell. "Do you remember the last time you saw me behind bars?"

"Yes, I do." Elijah replied coolly despite the fact that his brother was actually scaring him. His eyes had dark rings around them and his posture was giving off a dangerous vibe that Elijah had never seen before.

"So do I." Klaus said with a creepy smile. "And if I remember correctly," he rubbed his chin in mock thoughtfulness, "You said to me that night that you would never let Mikael hurt me again, is that right?"

Elijah swallowed, narrowing his eyes at his obviously disturbed sibling.

"Yes, I said that." He replied carefully.

"And you kept your promise!" Klaus shouted happily, holding his arms out to the side. "Mikael never laid another harmful hand on me again. You took me under your wing, let me live in your apartment even when you and Finn moved to America, lent me money since Mikael refused to give me my trust fund. You really took care of me, didn't you?"

Elijah took a deep breath, fearing the turn that he knew this conversation would soon be taking.

"I suppose I did." He said shortly.

"Well you suppose _wrong_!" Klaus suddenly screamed, rushing at the bars with all of his strength and pressing his face between them like a maniac. Elijah didn't so much as flinch though which infuriated Klaus even more. "Do you know how many scars I have from Mikael, Elijah?" Klaus spat, his hands shaking and his eyes darkening by the second. "Fifty-eight. I have fifty-eight scars on my body from _your_ _father_ and where were you those fifty-eight times? Huh? _Answer_ _me_!"

"I was not by your side." Elijah replied evenly, struggling to maintain his composure. "I was not by your side Niklaus and for that I am truly, deeply sorry."

"What if it had been Kol?" Klaus questioned, cocking his head to the side. "Or Rebekah? I bet if it had been one of them that Mikael despised you would have protected them better. But not me, oh no, not the bastard child. You never even saw me as a brother, did you?"

"Of course I did." Elijah spat, finally starting to lose his cool temperament.

"_Liar_!" Klaus screamed, slamming his head against the bars. "You're lying to me, you don't give a damn about me, none of you do! You think I'm a bastard, a monster, an unlovable beast!"

"Niklaus you are one of the most loved people in the world despite how much you believe otherwise." Elijah said quickly, taking a step forward. "Myself, Rebekah, Kol, Finn. We loved you more than we ever thought possible, it destroyed us to see Mikael hurt you time and time again. I can't tell you how many times Rebekah came running to me in tears when he hit you, or the times that Kol himself was backhanded for standing up to our father on your behalf. Even Finn risked being disowned from the family for telling Mikael to stay away from you or else he would sell every one of his dirty secrets to each rival company of Mikaelson Arts. And of course you know what all I have done for you over the years."

Klaus was silent, the dark rings around his eyes slowly fading away much to Elijah's disbelief though he didn't comment on them.

"Not to mention Caroline." He continued, making Klaus visibly flinch. "That woman loves you with complete and total abandon, I've never _seen_ the kind of devotion she has for you."

"Well damn Elijah why don't you just take her for yourself." Klaus spat, the dark rings making their return. "Oh wait I forgot, you have your own whore and you're even married to her! Is Katherine really that good in bed that you somehow just had to convince that incessant bitch to spend the rest of her miserable life with –"

Klaus was cut off as Elijah rushed forward and reached through the bars to wrap one of his hands around Klaus' throat. The younger brother gasped, choking as Elijah slowly squeezed the air out of his trachea.

"You will not say another word about Katerina do you understand me?" Elijah hissed venomously, briefly noting that it would have been very easy for Klaus to scratch him at that moment, yet his brother's hands were balled up in fists at his side. Almost as if Klaus was specifically fighting the urge to pass on the Infection.

Elijah released his brother after a few more seconds of him gasping for air, and Klaus fell to a heap in the floor, inhaling as much oxygen as he could hold.

"You are stronger than this Niklaus." Elijah finally spoke once he had taken a few steps back.

"Shut up." Klaus gasped out.

"I will not –"

"Just shut up!" Klaus screamed, looking to his left at the cell wall adjacent to him.

Elijah cocked his head to the side, about to ask what Klaus was doing when his brother started screaming again.

"Just shut up dammit he's my brother!" Klaus shook his head franticly, pressing his fists to his temples. "Go away! I won't do it, I won't!"

"Niklaus." Elijah whispered, making his brother shake his head even more. "Niklaus what is it?"

"He won't stop talking!" Klaus shouted.

"Who won't stop talking?" Elijah asked hurriedly, crouching down to look his brother in the eye through the cell bars. "Who is it?"

"Me!" Klaus screeched in pain. "It's me Elijah, don't you see me?" He pointed at the empty side of the cell as if there were something or someone there. "He's telling me to kill you, to rip your throat out, and I can't make him bloody stop! I just want him to _shut_ _up_!"

Elijah stayed in the room for about five more minutes watching his younger brother argue with an invisible person before he had to make a quiet exit and let his tears fall freely.

######

**A/N: Ouch. That hurt. But hey I threw a little bit of the budding Carenzo friendship and some Kalijah in there for you guys :) Don't worry, there is LOTS more where that came from. And the next big plot point is going to be announced next chapter *squeals* which will be posted at some point tomorrow, so keep an eye out. Remember to review please! xoxo**


	13. Chapter 13 - Suicide Squad

**Chapter 13 – Suicide Squad**

**A/N: My story has over sixty reviews? What is life? Keep them coming, you guys are awesome! Enjoy this chapter! **

######

_"__So tell me about all of your siblings." Caroline asked Klaus as she curled up next to him on the blanket they had set out in the middle of Central Park._

_She had spontaneously decided to call her boyfriend that day and ask if he wanted to go on a picnic with her during his lunch break. While he had grumbled over how cheesy picnics were, he had obviously agreed just to see her._

_"__I mean I know Elijah." Caroline continued, popping a grape into her mouth. "And I know Rebekah kind of, even though I feel like she really hates me." Klaus chuckled. "But what about Finn and Kol? Finn is like, never here even though he helps run the business and you never talk about Kol."_

_Klaus sighed, leaning back on his elbow and leisurely trailing his finger down Caroline's bare arm, smirking when goose bumps appeared._

_"__Well 'Lijah and I are the closest, as you could probably guess." He started, making Caroline nod. "Rebekah is…she drives me nuts, but I love her more than she knows. All the authority that I try to impose on her is just to keep her safe, but of course she doesn't realize that. And Finn…well, Finn isn't really close to any of us. He was a mama's boy as a child and so he misses England a lot, which is why he is hardly ever here. But when he is we get along fairly well."_

_"__And what about Kol?" Caroline inquired, laying back and turning her head to face him. "You said he moved to Chicago?"_

_Klaus sighed heavily, looking up at the bright blue July sky. He was silent for a few moments and Caroline didn't say anything, which he was grateful for. For her to be the most talkative person he had ever met, she had a knack for knowing when he needed silence._

_"__Ever since Kol was a child he resented being the youngest brother." Klaus finally said. "There was a six year gap between Kol and myself, ten for Elijah, and thirteen for Finn. So Kol was constantly trying to prove to us older ones that he was stronger, smarter, and more capable than us."_

_"__I take it you didn't appreciate that?" Caroline asked._

_"__Well if he had just done it without so much arrogance we wouldn't have cared." Klaus said with a sad chuckle. "But Kol is like me in the sense that his pride is his undoing. He is always right, and anytime we try to help him it's not for his well-being but because we think he's weak." He said sardonically, shaking his head. "We got along well as children, especially when Elijah first moved out and Rebekah started to actually act like a girl." Caroline chuckled. "But as we got older our fights got more intense. Eventually we just started to hate each other."_

_"__I'm sure he doesn't hate you."_

_"__Oh he does." Klaus said assuredly, not making eye contact with Caroline. "Before he ducked out of the business and decided to move to Chicago he made sure to tell me so."_

_Caroline was quiet for a few seconds before she reached beside her and laced her fingers through Klaus'. He turned his head to the side only to see that she was already gazing at him._

_"__You're his big brother." Caroline whispered, her deep blue eyes boring into his own. "No matter what he says, that will never change. He looks up to you, he loves you. And that doesn't change just because of a few words neither of you meant or because he moved away."_

_"__Love you don't even know him."_

_"__I don't have to." She replied immediately. "Because I know you. And I know how much you love your siblings and I know that you would do anything in the world for them. And I also know that that isn't a one-way street with any of you Mikaelsons."_

_The corners of Klaus' mouth turned up as he stared at the beautiful girl beside him that was honoring him with the privilege of her own award winning smile._

_"__I love you." He said seriously, still being careful about when he used those words since it hadn't been that long ago that they each said them for the first time._

_Caroline's smile grew even wider and she rolled onto her side so that her lips were hovering over his._

_"__And I love you." She whispered as she kissed him longingly._

######

"How is he?" Caroline asked from her perch on one of Wes' many lab tables.

Enzo sighed, shaking his head as he closed the door that led to Klaus' cell and effectively drowned out the screaming.

"The same as yesterday and the day before that, Caroline." He grumbled. "Absolutely insane."

"It's because he's fighting it." Caroline snapped. "You heard Wes, this is how he's coping with the Infection."

"Well it doesn't make him any less bloody mad." Enzo barked, relaxing when he saw Caroline's pained expression. "Ah damn it Caroline, I'm sorry. He's fine, he hasn't hurt himself or anything like that."

Caroline let out a sigh of relief, closing her eyes for a few moments.

"But what about you?" Enzo asks, hopping up to sit beside her. Wes was on the other side of the room working by himself as per usual. "How are you doing? Have you even left this basement anytime in the past week and a half?"

Caroline chuckles sadly, shaking her head. "No, not really. I'm kind of scared to go back to my room. Katherine and Elijah haven't been assigned one together yet so they've been…y'know…"

"Ah, I see." Enzo says mischievously. "The married couple catching up on lost time eh? Well good for them. _Somebody_ should be."

Caroline laughed again. "Yeah, something like that. And then Damon and Stefan have been catching up a lot, which is good. They were never really close before The Outbreak so… And then I know that Elena, Rebekah, and Lexi have been helping teach at that little school type thing on the other side of the community. And Matt's been patrolling the wall with Alaric and Jeremy."

"And what about the other ones?" Enzo inquired. "The darker skinned girl and Klaus' brother?"

"Oh, Bonnie and Kol. Well Bonnie's been helping some of the nurses around here I think. She once said that her grandma knew a lot about medicinal herbs and that kind of thing, so she has a lot to contribute. And Kol has been pretty secluded lately according to Elijah. He's taking this stuff with Klaus really hard apparently."

"But I thought he wasn't even close with his siblings?"

Caroline sighed. "He wasn't. In fact he kind of resented all of them I think. I've never really talked to him much to be completely honest with you."

"What?" Enzo asked incredulously. "He's your boyfriend's brother, not to mention you just travelled all the way here from Chicago with him."

"I had never met Kol until The Outbreak." Caroline clarified. "I was in Chicago to see Katherine and Elena's Aunt Jenna, but Kol lived there with Bonnie too. When The Outbreak started, I tracked them down before we left the city."

"Ah, I see. But why did you never talk to him then?"

"He reminded me too much of Klaus." She said sadly, looking down at her feet which she was swinging from the edge of the table. "They both have these snarky, overly confident personalities."

"Oh, it all makes sense now." Enzo said slowly, looking off dramatically.

"What makes sense?"

"Why you can't stay away from me of course." Enzo replied in a haughty and teasing tone. "I mean come on Caroline. In case you haven't noticed I too am an overly self-assured British man that you just can't seem to stay away from."

"Oh shutup!" Caroline laughed, shoving his shoulder to which he just grinned. "You're my friend Enzo, you know that. And if you keep being so flirty with me people are going to start thinking the wrong thing."

"Oh I'm just teasing gorgeous." He said seriously, still smiling lightly. "Maggie is the only girl for me." He paused dramatically. "But hey in any other circumstances –"

"I've done it." Wes suddenly whispered, interrupting what was bound to be a disgustingly sexual innuendo. The doctor stood up from his microscope slowly. "I've done it, I've figured it out."

"Done what exactly?" Enzo asked slowly, hopping down from the table and extending a hand to Caroline to help her do the same.

"The cells." Wes continued as if he himself was in disbelief. "I've done the impossible, I've figured out how to target the Infected cells to attack themselves."

"You did what?" Caroline shouted incredulously, jumping down without Enzo's assistance and running over to Wes, her blonde hair flying in front of her face as she leaned over the table he was working on. "You've created the cure?"

"Yes!" The doctor shouted excitedly, looking back into the microscope with the biggest smile he'd had in ages.

But then his shoulders dropped as he observed the cells, Enzo immediately noticing his change in stature.

"What is it?" Enzo asked quickly. "Talk to us Wes, what the bloody hell is going on?" He asked with his voice raised.

"No, no, no, no." Wes grumbled, standing back up to his full height and briefly making eye contact with Enzo and Caroline before screaming in frustration and throwing all of his notebooks with various equations in them across the room.

"Wes!" Enzo shouted, grabbing his shoulders and turning him back around. "Get it together and tell us what's happening or so help me I will –"

"I had it the first time!" Wes interrupted with a shout, breathing heavily. "When I…when I was trying to design the cure for cancer before The Outbreak, I had it. I had found the cure, it was proven to work."

"But...The Infection…" Caroline trailed off in confusion.

"I made alterations." Wes said in shame, looking down and shaking his head sadly. "I had the cure for cancer, but I couldn't stop there. I altered it so that when taken, not only would it cure cancer, but it would prevent any illness. Asthma, learning disabilities, psoriasis, the common cold."

"Well it didn't seem to turn out well, did it?" Enzo growled, bunching his fist up in Wes' shirt.

"No, it didn't." Wes said quickly. "The cure became The Infection, it was too intense. The body was never meant not to be sick. But what I'm trying to tell you is that I was right the first time."

"When you created the first cure?" Caroline asked, stepping forward to where Enzo was holding up Wes. "The one that could get rid of cancer?"

"Yes." He answered with a meek smile. "And now I've figured out that I had what I was searching for all along. The _original_ cure would have done everything I was trying to alter it to do. Cure _and_ prevent any type of sick cells."

"Including the Infection." Caroline whispered in realization.

"Including the Infection." Wes repeated.

"Well great!" Enzo shouted, letting go of Wes' shirt and clapping him on the shoulders. "Administer the cure you made ages ago then. Mass production, save the world, all that jazz."

"Well therein lies the problem." Wes said in a conflicted tone. "I don't have the means here to make it."

"Well did you save any of the original cure?" Caroline asked quickly with wide eyes as she stepped closer to them.

"Of course I did, I'm not an imbecile." Wes replied condescendingly.

Enzo scoffed. "Could've fooled me."

"Then just use your super genius science-y skills to duplicate what you've already made!" Caroline shouted incredulously. "You can do that, can't you?"

"Yes, it's simple."

"Then do it!" Caroline all but screamed, ecstatic at the prospect of saving Klaus.

"No you don't understand Caroline." Wes countered, looking at her with a pitiful expression. "I don't have it here. I only kept three vials of the original cure and I didn't bring any of them to Whitmore with me."

Enzo and Caroline both looked at each other as a tense silence washed over the trio.

"Well then where are they?" Enzo asked slowly, scared to hear the answer.

Wes let out a deep breath, looking at each of them.

"In my lab." He said in a defeated voice.

Wes' next words gave Enzo and Caroline the worst sense of dread they had ever felt.

"In New York City."

######

_Klaus cleared his throat to get Elijah's attention as he stepped into his older brother's office. Elijah looked up from his computer._

_"__Niklaus? Is everything alright?" He asked, noting the worry lines etched into Klaus' face._

_"__Yes of course, of course, everything is fine." Klaus said quickly. "I was just wondering though, have you uh…have you heard from Kol at all lately?"_

_Elijah smiled, leaning back in his chair fully._

_"__Niklaus if you want to call Kol and wish him a happy birthday –"_

_"__Oh please, Elijah." Klaus rolled his eyes. "Kol is 21 years old, I'm not going to bother calling him to wish him a happy birthday when he is probably sloshed out of his mind." He muttered. "Especially when he probably wouldn't even answer the damn phone."_

_"__He answered when I called him this morning." Elijah retorted. "And Finn as well. Rebekah even skyped with him last night and he seemed quite happy to talk to all of us."_

_"__Well." Klaus mumbled, swallowing thickly. "Good for you all then. I think I'll just be going then –"_

_"__Niklaus." Elijah called out as he started to leave. "Just call him. You haven't spoken to Kol in over a year, don't you think it's time you two worked out your differences?"_

_"__Do you forget what Kol said to me when he left?" Klaus asked indignantly, spinning back around to face his brother. "He said that he couldn't believe you let me work in the family business when my last name shouldn't even be Mikaelson." He spat, pain flashing across his eyes as the memory resurfaced. _

_"__I remember clearly." Elijah said calmly. "I also remember you saying several things that were out of line that night as well."_

_Klaus just looked away, jaw clenching in frustration._

_"__For the record, Kol is doing well." Elijah said, seeing Klaus glance at him out of the corner of his eye. "He and his girlfriend Bonnie are still living together. She just got into medical school, he's very proud of her."_

_"__And his writing?" Klaus asked with feigned indifference after a few tense seconds of silence. "Is he still a sports critic or whatever he likes to call it?"_

_Elijah looked down at his lap and smiled. Klaus may pretend that he doesn't care for their youngest brother but his actions have always proved otherwise, ever since they were children._

_"__His writing is going well. Kol has an entire column in the Chicago Tribune now."_

_"__That's…good." Klaus muttered, briefly making eye contact with Elijah and hating how vulnerable he felt at that moment. _

_"__He asked about you." Elijah said, making Klaus freeze. "He asked how you were doing. Rebekah has told him all about Caroline and we even had to convince him that you two were actually together and not just a part of some silly prank." Klaus smirked despite himself. "He says he would love to meet her one day."_

_"__Well that's enough of that 'Lijah, I'll be going now, I –"_

_"__Mr. Mikaelson?" Elijah's secretary suddenly popped her head into the office. "A Mr. Donovan is here to see you? He asked to speak to both you and your brother actually, so I'm glad I caught you now."_

_"__Matt?" Klaus asked, looking at his brother. "Why the bloody hell would the quarterback want to speak to the both of us in the middle of the day?"_

_Elijah took a deep breath and stood up from his chair. "I think I know why." He mumbled ominously in a barely audible voice under his breath. "Send him in please Allison, thank you."_

_The secretary nodded and stepped out. A few seconds later Matt stepped into Elijah's office, clad in jeans and a t-shirt with his bar's logo on it. He looked flustered, running a hand through his short hair and swallowing thickly as Klaus smirked at him with an evil undertone._

_"__Mr. Donovan." Elijah said politely. "How nice to see you again. I trust you're doing well?" _

_"__Oh yeah, yeah, I'm doing great." Matt stammered out, glancing briefly with a scared expression at Klaus who was still glaring relentlessly. "I um, I actually came here to ask you guys something. About Rebekah."_

_Klaus' stomach dropped and he whipped his head back to Elijah, fearing what was about to happen. Elijah just gave him a look that said 'calm down' and then turned back to Matt._

_"__Of course, go ahead."_

_Matt took a deep breath, bouncing a bit on his feet in nervousness._

_"__Well you see, I would like to ask you guys for your blessing." Matt finally managed to say. "To ask Rebekah to marry me."_

######

"Caroline you realize you're bloody insane, right?" Enzo asked condescendingly as he tried his best to keep up with Caroline's determined power walk towards the center of town. "This is mad!"

"Actually, it's not." Caroline snapped, her lips set in a firm line and her eyes piercing forward. "We have to go to New York City, that is our _only_ option."

"Everyone knows that the most dangerous place to be is in the bloody city!" Enzo said in frustration, two seconds away from pulling his own hair out. "And you think you can assemble a team of people to walk right into their deaths for the _very_ slim chance that the cure is still in Wes' lab? That building is probably burnt to the ground by now, or crawling with Infected!"

"But we don't know that!" Caroline shouted back at him, coming to an abrupt stop and facing him head on. "This is our only hope, Enzo. Our only hope to cure Klaus, and Aaron, and Maggie." It didn't escape her that Enzo's jaw clenched at the mention of his love. "And I'm going to go after that hope with every ounce of strength that I have left in me. And you don't have to go with me, I never asked you to. But what I am asking you to do is help me explain to my friends what's going on because they have the right to know."

And without another word Caroline spun on her heel and continued to head towards the middle of town where she had asked all of her friends and the mayor to meet her, a look of determination on her otherwise delicate features.

Enzo stayed where he was for a few seconds, biting his lip and cursing his own luck for becoming friends with Caroline Forbes.

"Ah damn you you bloody stubborn girl." He cursed under his breath, jogging to catch up with her. "Wait!"

When Enzo and Caroline reached the meeting point, they saw everyone else was already there. Damon, Stefan, and Lexi were all standing together talking, Alaric, Matt, and Jeremy were just walking up with their guns slung over their shoulders from doing wall patrol, and Kol was talking to Elijah while Katherine was messing with Elena's hair. The mayor, Tyler, and head of patrol Mason Lockwood were also in attendance.

Rebekah was also there and as soon as she spotted Caroline she rushed up to her.

"Caroline I need to talk to you." Rebekah asked in a harsh whisper, her accent more pronounced like it usually got when she was stressed out.

"Not now Rebekah." Caroline replied.

"No Caroline this isn't really something that can wait. You see I'm –"

"Ah there she is." Kol cut his sister off in a snarky tone as Caroline and Enzo reached everyone. Rebekah sighed and went to stand next to Matt. "Well Caroline are you going to tell us why we're all here or are we just supposed to guess?"

"Be quiet, Kol." Elijah snapped at his brother. "Caroline, is everything alright? Is Niklaus okay?"

"Yes." She said quickly – almost too quickly. "Everything is great actually. A few hours ago, Wes – Dr. Maxfield – well he figured out how to cure the Infection."

Everyone jumped at once, stepping forward and asking a million questions all at the same time.

_"__How is that possible?"_

_"__Did it work, is Niklaus cured?"_

_"__Can he create more, can we administer it to anyone that's Infected?"_

_"__Can it keep us from becoming Infected in the future?"_

_"__How do you know it works?"_

"Woah, woah, woah!" Enzo shouted, stepping in front of Caroline to keep the mass away. "Hold on people, she's not done yet."

Caroline inhaled deeply and nodded her thanks to Enzo who nodded back. Everyone stopped talking and took a few steps back to give her room to breathe.

"Right, as I was saying." She said in a shaky voice. "Wes figured out a cure. But…unfortunately, it's not here."

"Not here?" Damon asked incredulously. "Then how the hell does he know if it works?"

"Because he's already made it before." She called back to him. "Wes developed what he knows for certain can cure The Infection before The Outbreak even happened."

"How do we know he isn't lying?" Jeremy spoke up. "I mean this guy did start the apocalypse in case you've forgotten."

"His son is Infected." Enzo said dryly. "Trust me mate, he knows it will work. He wouldn't risk hurting Aaron any further."

"Look what I'm trying to tell you guys," Caroline continued, "Is that we know that there's a cure. Wes made it, and if we can get it for him then he can replicate it and save not only Klaus and Maggie and Aaron, but _any_ Infected out there."

"Well if the cure isn't here…" Bonnie said questioningly, "Then where is it?"

Caroline took a deep breath and pursed her lips, pausing to look at Enzo before she answered.

"New York." She said, quickly stepping forward as everyone's eyes started to bulge out of their head. "But it's okay! Because I'm going to lead a group of people there and retrieve the cure myself."

"And who is this group going to be?" The mayor's brother Mason called out in disbelief. "Wait do you want _us_ to go? After we worked so hard to build these walls so we could be safe from the Infected you actually expect us to go back out there and fight those damn monsters in the city where we don't stand a _chance_?" He all but shouted.

"Mason, quiet." The mayor hushed Mason, stepping forward. "Caroline, I'm glad that Wes has developed a cure, I truly am." He said sincerely. "And you can ask any of our people to join you that you want, but…don't be surprised when they say no. We may act oblivious to the world outside the walls but believe me – we all remember."

Caroling gulped, nodding her head at the mayor curtly and trying to swallow back the tears.

"I would never ask you guys to die for me." Caroline suddenly announced to the entire group in a grave voice. "I mean let's face it, I'm a nobody. I'm just Caroline Forbes, the annoyingly optimistic girl that has really nice hair." She saw Damon smirk sadly in the back as she brought up words that he himself had said about her before The Outbreak. "I'm not anybody worth dying for." She said seriously, pausing for a few seconds and making eye contact with everyone she could. "But I know that every single one of you has lost someone to The Infection. Some in worse ways than others. We've lost friends and family, we've lost our homes, we've lost our _humanity_. And now we have a chance to get it all back. And yeah, it could be a suicide mission. But I would rather die trying to redeem myself for everything bad that I've done and maybe even save the world than sit inside these walls another second knowing that the cure is out there."

Everyone was silent, the weight of Caroline's words pressing in on them. Elijah looked on at the girl he considered family with a just barely noticeable proud smile.

"So I may not ask you to die for me but I will not hesitate ask you to die for everyone we've lost." Caroline continued in a strong voice. "For Jenna." She looked at Katherine and Elena and Alaric. "For Anna." Jeremy looked down at the ground. "For Lee, for _everyone_ we've watched die! And for the millions that will continue to die if we don't step up and do this. So," She took a deep breath and stood up straighter. "Who will join me?"

"I will." Elijah said instantly, taking a step forward. "For Niklaus."

"Me too." Katherine stepped forward with her husband who turned to her incredulously.

"Katerina no, you must stay here."

"Elijah what part of 'I won't lose you again' don't you understand?" She asked him in disbelief. "Because when I said that I meant _never_ again. We both know that we're stronger together than when we are apart so do not fight me on this because trust me, you'll lose."

"Katherine." Elena whispered, stepping up to her sister with teary eyes. "You…you can't, you can't leave me here."

Katherine smiled weakly at her twin sister, stepping over and putting her hands on Elena's cheeks.

"Elena I love you. You and Jeremy are the best siblings I could have ever asked for, but I _have_ to do this. For Elijah, for Klaus. For Aunt Jenna."

"If it's for Jenna then we're coming too." Jeremy said, gesturing to himself and Alaric.

"No, you're not." Katherine said immediately. "You two are the best patrols out here and I'll need both of you to look out for Elena, do you understand me?"

"But –"

"No buts, Jer." Katherine cut him off. "You're staying here."

"I'm going as well." Kol announced before turning to Bonnie. "And _you_ are staying here."

"Excuse me?" Bonnie asked incredulously. "Oh hell no, if you're going then I'm going, that's not up for discussion."

"I'm not asking you a question Bonnie." He said in a serious voice, taking Bonnie's hands and leaning down towards her face, showing the compassionate side that only she could bring out in him. "You are the best part of my entire life, Bonnie. And I'll be damned if you get killed when you could have a real chance to survive here. You're helping people, healing them. You belong here."

"But you belong here _with_ me." She argued.

"You're right, I do." He smiled, reaching up to caress her face. "But I have to do this for my brother. I've done a lot of awful things to Klaus in the past and this is how I'm going to redeem myself. Please understand."

Bonnie was crying but she nodded all the same, leaning forward and resting her forehead against Kol's.

"Count me in." Tyler stood up from where he had been crouched on the ground. Caroline looked at him in surprise. "Hey don't look at me like that. The Infection ruined my life and you'll need strong fighters by your side. So I'm in."

The mayor and Mason both started to argue with Tyler, but Caroline tuned out when she saw Damon grab Stefan's arm as he went to step forward.

"Oh no you don't little brother." Damon said as he pursed his lips together. "Don't you dare. Just because you have hero hair does not mean you can actually save the world."

"Damon I have to. Klaus saved Lexi's life when he could have just left her to die. I owe him this." Stefan said firmly, leaving no room for debate. "And don't even think about coming along just for me because we both know you are no help in a fight if all you're thinking about is Elena."

"And _you're_ no help in a fight if you don't have someone watching your back." Lexi cut in, stepping up to Stefan. "So I'm going too. And don't even try to tell me no because I'd really rather not embarrass you in front of everyone when I kick your ass."

"Rebekah?" Kol asked, turning to his little sister who had been oddly quiet this entire time. "What about you? Care to make this a family affair?"

"I…" Rebekah started, her face growing paler by the second.

"We'll go." Matt said for her, stepping up beside his fiancée. "There's no way she's going without me and I know she wants to do this for Klaus."

"No." Rebekah suddenly whispered ominously, making everyone look at her in shock. Surely Klaus' sister would be one of the most willing to help save him. "I-I can't, I can't go."

"What?" Kol asked incredulously. "Niklaus saved your ass a hundred times over and now you don't want to help him?"

"It's not that I don't want to Kol, it's that I –"

"Hey man back off." Matt interrupted.

"Oh I'd love for you to try and make me Quarterback." Kol sneered.

"Both of you be quiet." Elijah ordered. "Rebekah does not have to join us if she does not wish to."

"But that's not it Elijah!" Rebekah shouted. "It's not that I don't want to it's that I physically can't!"

"Well why the bloody hell not?" Enzo jumped in, annoyed with all of the family bickering.

"It's what I've been trying to tell you all for days but nobody has bothered to listen to me!" She cried, making everyone get quiet. "I can't go because I'm…" She trailed off, not able to finish the sentence.

"I knew it." Bonnie suddenly whispered, making Kol look down at her curiously. "Rebekah I _asked_ you about it the other day why didn't you just tell me the truth?"

"Say what?" Kol asked, looking between his sister and his girlfriend in confusion. "Say what?!"

"I'm pregnant!" Rebekah yelled, making Matt's eyes bulge out of his head.

"You're…what?" He breathed out.

"I'm pregnant." She repeated in a whisper. "Bonnie was able to tell yesterday when one of the herbs she gave me made me sick and…well, I've suspected for a while.

"How did you even…" Kol started to ask, cringing at his trail of thought. "Oh for Pete's sake did you actually manage to shag my sister while on the run from bloody _zombies_?"

"Kol." Elijah muttered in annoyance, Katherine trying to stifle a laugh beside him but miserably failing.

"You're sure?" Matt ignored her brothers, stepping up to Rebekah with worry etched into his strong features. "You're sure that's what it is?"

"I'm sure." She whispered. "I didn't want to say anything until we made it to Whitmore and then when Bonnie asked me and basically confirmed it…I was afraid."

"Okay this is all very touching and adorable and all of that." Enzo suddenly grumbled, annoyed as always. "But you two can discuss baby names once we finish up here."

"Enzo." Caroline started to scold him for his bluntness but to no avail.

"So," He clapped his hands together, "Is that all who is joining us? Mr. and Mrs. Sophisticated, The Annoying One, Biceps, and Sexi?"

"Sexi?" Caroline asked in confusion.

"Yeah. You know, Stefan and Lexi." Enzo clarified. "I thought it was clever." Enzo shrugged.

"Yes." Elijah answered sternly. "The five of us will join you and Caroline to New York to retrieve the cure."

"You'll need to train." Mason said in a bored voice from beside Tyler. "If you guys are acrtually going to be stupid enough to travel to the city then you need to prepare yourselves for what lies ahead."

"We don't have time to train." Caroline argued in exasperation. "We have to get to that cure as soon as possible."

"Yeah well if you leave here without preparing at all then you won't even make it halfway." Mason shot back.

"Mason is right." Alaric weighed in. "Just give it a week or two Caroline and get ready for the journey. Winter is right around the corner and that means more cloud cover during the day and dangerous weather conditions. You're going to be facing Infected left and right so you need to remind yourself how to fight."

"We can equip you with weapons." The mayor said. "Good weapons, and as much ammunition as you can carry."

"Thank you." Caroline said sincerely.

"So is that it then?" Enzo asked the group collectively. "Are we done here, have we covered everything? Blondie Number Two is preggers, Katty wears the pants in the relationship, and we're leaving in a week?"

"Must you be so incessantly irritating?" Elijah asked in a strained voice.

"Yes actually I must." Enzo smiled at him sarcastically. "It's how I cope."

"So this is it then." Caroline said. "Myself, Enzo, Elijah, Katherine, Tyler, Kol, Stefan, and Lexi. Is that everyone who wants to go? Because if not then back out now."

Everyone was silent. Elena was crying on Jeremy's shoulder while she held onto Katherine's hand. Damon was trying to keep a straight face, Mason was looking at Tyler with a proud expression, and Kol and Bonnie were still locked in their embrace.

"Well this is fantastic." Enzo said in mock sincerity. "We've got our own Suicide Squad all set and ready to go."

######

**A/N: WHATTTT? REBEKAH IS PREGNANT? THE CURE IS IN NEW YORK CITY? TYLER IS BACK IN THE MAIN PLOTLINE? WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT? **

**Review please! And I know this chapter had a major lack of Infected!Klaus but never fear! There is going to be a Caroline/Infected!Klaus scene next chapter that I think you guys will like ;) Remember to review! xoxo **


	14. Chapter 14 - Delusional

**Chapter 14 – Delusional **

**A/N: So this is probably the most angsty and painful chapter I've ever written. It pains me so much and I love it. I hope you guys do too. Remember to review please!**

######

_"__Klaus are you freaking delusional?!" Caroline shouted, pulling at her hair in frustration. "There is absolutely nothing going on with me and Stefan, how many times do I have to tell you that?"_

_"__Do not take me for a fool, Caroline!" Klaus yelled right back, pacing back and forth across his lavish living room. "I've seen the way you look at Stefan, don't try and tell me –"_

_"__I look at Stefan like he's my best friend because that's what he is!" She interrupted. "He's been by my side since we were kids, I'm not going to distance myself from him just because you're being a paranoid douchebag!"_

_Klaus laughed then, a mocking laugh that infuriated Caroline even further. They'd been arguing over her friendship with Stefan for the past ten minutes and it felt like they were just talking in circles. Klaus was accusing her of having feelings for him, Caroline was profusely denying it, and so on and so forth._

_Only having been officially together for a month and a half, this was their first real fight and boy was it a doozy for them both. Klaus with his paranoia and temper, and Caroline with her stubbornness._

_"__Caroline honestly I have been called many things but a paranoid douchebag?" Klaus said sarcastically. "Now that is new."_

_"__You're infuriating!" Caroline all but screamed, literally stomping her foot. "Do you not trust me? What have I ever done that makes you think I would cheat on you with Stefan of all people? He's my best friend and nothing more! I mean even as kids and teenagers it's never been anything more than a completely platonic friendship between us!"_

_"__I can't trust you because I can't trust anyone!" Klaus retorted back, forcing a tense silence between them. His chest was heaving with heavy breaths, and Caroline's face fell in concern. "I can't trust anyone, Caroline." He added in a voice just above a whisper. "My entire life, everyone that I have put my faith in has betrayed me. Every single one, even my family. Especially my family, actually."_

_"__Klaus I –"_

_"__No Caroline, just don't." He cut her off, turning his head away to try and hide his glassy eyes. "If I for one second trust you with all of me – all of my heart and soul, then it will hurt a million times worse when you leave."_

_"__What makes you think I'll leave?" Caroline asked instantly, stepping up to Klaus and putting her hands on his cheeks and making him look her in the eyes even though he tried not to. "Klaus don't you get it? I'm with you for a reason. You make me laugh, you challenge me, you make me want to be better. I think about you all the time, you've been on my mind since the day you tried and miserably failed to flirt with me at that stupid Christmas party."_

_Klaus looked down at his feet and laughed sadly despite himself, glancing back up at the beautiful girl in front of him, touched by the genuine affection for him that was so obviously displayed on her face._

_"__So believe me, I have no interest in being with someone like Stefan." She continued. "I have no interest in anyone but you, Klaus. And I know you're not good with trust, but if you just give me a chance to prove you wrong…you'll see the way I feel about you."_

_Klaus swallowed thickly, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he battled within himself. His head was telling him that if he were to trust her it would be his undoing, but his heart wanted nothing more than to give her every part of him that she didn't already have._

_"__I thought you were with me simply because I'm something that you think you can fix." He said quietly, a painful expression on his strong features. "I mean honestly, look at me compared to Stefan. He's perfect for you, we both know it. But me, I'm just…broken."_

_Caroline chuckled, shaking her head. _

_"__Of course you're broken, Klaus. We all are." She said honestly, stepping even closer to him so that there was hardly any space between them. "But you're wrong if you think I want to fix you. I want you exactly the way you are, broken parts included. Because your brokenness just further shows me how strong of a man you really are."_

_Klaus was speechless, his mouth parted in awe. His entire life nobody – nobody – had ever looked at him with such genuine…love, the way that Caroline was looking at him now. There was no trace of doubt in his mind that she meant every word that she had just said._

_"__I don't want Stefan, I want you. And only you, Klaus." She said once again, a small smile gracing her features. "Because you are –"_

_Caroline was cut off as Klaus swooped down and captured her lips with his own, a small sound of surprise escaping her before she melted into his touch, eyes fluttering shut and arms wrapping around his neck of their own accord. _

_Their lips moved together like some sort of secret dance shared just between them. They fit together perfectly. Where he was hard, she was soft; where he was rough, she was gentle. They were the truest definition of puzzle pieces fitting together perfectly._

_They broke apart after a minute or two, the both of them breathing heavily as they rested their foreheads against one another. There wasn't an inch of space between their bodies, which molded together as if The Universe had specifically designed the two of them for each other._

_"__Damn." Caroline gasped out, making Klaus chuckle. "If fighting with you means I get kissed like that we should do this more often."_

_"__Oh love." Klaus said in a teasing tone, his hand slowly trailing down her back and making her shiver. "We haven't even gotten to the making up part yet."_

_"__The making up p –"_

_Caroline squealed as Klaus suddenly bent down and grabbed her behind the knees, throwing her up and over her shoulder and walking to the bedroom with purpose._

_"__Klaus!" She shrieked._

_"__Oh don't start yelling my name yet sweetheart, save your voice for later when it counts!"_

_Caroline was laughing hysterically as he tossed her onto the bed and pounced, assaulting her with kisses yet again. And sure enough, she was glad she saved her voice for the most fun part of the night._

_Oh yes, they would surely be fighting more often if this was the result._

######

Caroline stood outside of the steel door leading to Klaus' cell, waging a war within her own mind. The lab was empty, Aaron and Enzo had both gone off to their rooms. It was past midnight after all, but Caroline couldn't sleep. She hadn't seen Klaus in over a week and knowing that he was right there with her and in pain was keeping her up at night.

Along with Katherine and Elijah's…extracurricular activities, but that was beside the point.

She gulped, reaching a hand out and just barely touched the door handle with a shaky hand. She'd been trying to make a decision for the past ten minutes and she just wanted to open the damn door. But she was scared. It was the saddest thing ever to her, to actually be scared of the person she loved most in the world.

"Get it together, Caroline." She whispered harshly to herself. "He would do it for you and you know it."

With that thought in her mind, she took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The room was dark, the only light coming from the small window at the top of the room that just barely overlooked the main streets of the town. The moon was bright that night though, so she could see everything.

She leaned back against the door as it clicked shut behind her and she let out a deep breath and closed her eyes, surprised that she had actually made herself do it.

"Come to see the monster have you?"

Caroline jumped at the sound of Klaus' voice, her eyes flying open to see him sitting on the ground beside his cot, legs splayed out in front of him. His eyes were closed and a defeated look was on his face.

"Well hate to break it to you whoever you are," He continued in a bored voice, "But the monster is out at the moment."

Caroline frowned. He must not have opened his eyes at all since she'd stepped into the room, and of course he wouldn't think it could possibly be her that's come to visit him. It had been over a week after all.

"Klaus." She whispered. "It's me."

His eyes flew open so fast it was frightening, and Caroline would have taken a step back if she weren't already against the door.

His eyes connected with hers and a strange sense of warmth rushed over Caroline from head to toe. He looked like _her_ Klaus, not like the Infected she had been picturing in her mind. Was this what Wes had been talking about? An Infected and non-Infected part of him battling for dominance? Did this mean that _her_ Klaus was winning?

"Caroline." He whispered, pushing himself up from the ground slowly and walking over to wrap his hands around the cell bars, never breaking eye contact with her. A small, disbelieving smile appeared. "Oh Caroline, I…"

Klaus floundered for words to say, but could find none to express what he was feeling. Other Klaus had been mysteriously absent for the past few hours, but Klaus knew that he would return. He always returned.

"Hi." Caroline said meekly, taking a very small step forward. "You look..."

Klaus cringed as Caroline looked him up and down. He was well aware that he looked quite terrible. His clothes were dirty, his face was smeared with dirt and blood from where Other Klaus would make him hurt himself. He was thin, but not dangerously so. The Infection was actually sustaining his body without food or water, forcing him to survive throughout this mental agony.

"I know." Klaus said, swallowing thickly and looking down at the ground in shame. "But hey, at least my skin isn't peeling off." He tried to joke.

It seemed to work, an actual genuine smile appearing on Caroline's face. That small facial expression made Klaus' heart soar, for it had been so long since he had made her smile.

"Yeah that's definitely a plus." Caroline said quietly, crossing her arms and taking yet more small steps towards the bars, but still staying out of reach. "I mean flaky skin is definitely a turn off."

Klaus chuckled, licking his chapped lips as he looked her up and down as well.

"You on the other hand." He said. "You look…incredible."

Caroline laughed in disbelief, shaking her head as a blush appeared on her cheeks. It was amazing how even in situations like this Klaus could make her feel so damn important.

"Oh please." She argued. "I'm not wearing an ounce of makeup, and these clothes look ridiculous." She gestured down to her plain jeans, boots, and red shirt.

"You never need makeup love, how many times have I told you that?" Klaus rolled his eyes, and for a second it felt like they were back home bickering while she took far too long to get ready for a date instead of visiting each other through bars out of fear one would kill the other. "You're beautiful, Caroline. Especially now that you're so…strong."

"Literally or metaphorically?" Caroline asked with a teasing grin.

"Both." He shot back immediately, the two of them smiling at each other like lovestruck teenagers which was the furthest thing from the truth.

"Oh well isn't this _adorable_."

Klaus visibly winced as Other Klaus made his return with perfect timing. His Infected self hallucination was leaned against the opposite side of the cell, looking Caroline up and down, who was oblivious of course. Because he wasn't _actually_ there.

"Look at you two, pretending everything is just peachy." Other Klaus mocked condescendingly, a smile on his dark face.

"Klaus?" Caroline asked, seeing the love of her life leaned against the bars with squinted eyes as if in physical pain. "What is it, are you alright?"

"Well go on and tell her." Other Klaus said, holding his arms out and stepping closer to his counterpart. "Tell her I'm here. The monster she came to see. I mean let's face it I am the main attraction."

"No." Klaus growled.

"Well what's wrong?" Caroline said worriedly, thinking he was replying to her and not his own mind. "What can I do?"

"You can't do anything!" Other Klaus and the Klaus in front of Caroline both shouted at the same time, switching positions instantaneously.

The Infected version was now the dominant part of Klaus' mind and Caroline gasped as dark circles suddenly rimmed his eyes and he smirked evilly at her.

"Klaus?" She asked quietly, trying to control her breathing. "Is that…you?"

He laughed, grinning like a maniac.

"Well of course love." He said sarcastically. "It's all me, after all. Me, Niklaus Mikaelson. The man you love. I'm right here for you."

Caroline took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes.

"You're not Klaus." She hissed, making his eyebrows shoot up in amusement towards her venomous tone. "You're the Infection, but you are not him."

It was silent for a second before he burst out laughing, throwing his head back as if she had just said the funniest joke in the world. He was mocking her though, and her face began to heat up in embarrassment.

"Oh Caroline." He chuckled, pretending to wipe away tears. "You haven't changed a bit, have you? Still clinging onto the hope that I can beat this? That I can beat myself? You surely are delusional, aren't you? But I suppose optimism is just your nature, isn't it? Well bad news sweetheart." He stepped forward, his face growing darker by the second as the Infection took more of a foothold in his mind. "This is _my_ nature. You've known it all along, haven't you? That this Infection, it's just bringing out what you've always known has been there."

"No." The more rational version of Klaus whispered as he stared at Caroline who couldn't see him because he wasn't even there. "No, no, don't do this to her please." He begged himself.

"You know who I am, Caroline!" Klaus screamed, ignoring himself. "I am vile, cruel, and unlovable and you know it."

"No, no, that's not true –" Caroline tried to say.

"And I am incapable of caring for you so stop fooling yourself!" Klaus screamed, making the hallucination Klaus sink to the ground and grip the bars for dear life as he stared at his Caroline.

"No Caroline, don't listen to him, don't _listen_." He begged in vain.

"You came down here for what reason?" The Infection hissed, tilting his chin up at Caroline. "To try and convince yourself of what you hope to be true?"

"No." Caroline retorted, her jaw clenched. "I came down here for a completely different reason."

He smirked, eyes glittering with pain and malice.

"What, want to give me a little kiss?" He taunted. "We both know you want to, love. Come a little closer and let me remind you what we used to have." He said in a terrifyingly seductive tone.

"Shutup." She smarted off which only made him chuckle. "I came down here to tell you that we found a cure." She said bluntly, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"What?" Both Klaus' asked simultaneously, their roles switching back and forth without any control whatsoever.

"Wes discovered a cure for the Infection." Caroline told him, trying not to look affected by how the dark circles around Klaus' eyes were fading in and out almost supernaturally. "And it's in New York City. I'm leading a team there a week from today to retrieve it."

"No." Klaus whispered, the Infected side of him objecting because it knew that the cure would eradicate him, and the rational side objecting out of fear for Caroline's safety.

And just like true love should, the real Klaus managed to become dominant over his own mind out of that fear for his love.

"Caroline you can't." Klaus rushed out, gasping as he regained control of himself, visibly startling Caroline. "It's too dangerous, you can't go back to the city. You'll never make it!" He was rushing his words as if he was afraid he wouldn't get them out in time before losing himself once again.

"Klaus I have to." Caroline said seriously, stepping up to bars and just outside of the safe zone upon seeing that it was _her_ Klaus speaking to her once more. "I have to save you, I can't let you stay like this, I just can't!"

"The city is a killbox Caroline and I'm not worth you dying!" He pleaded with her, eyes wide and watery as he leaned against the bars with all of his might as if they would somehow disappear and allow him to reach her. Feeling his strength dissipate, he started to sink down to the floor, still gripping the bars for dear life.

"Klaus I'm not going to die." Caroline assured him, abandoning all ideas of safety and rushing forward to the cell, kneeling right in front of Klaus and putting her hands over top of his on the bars. "I have an entire group that's going with me that wants to save you just as much as I do. Me, Elijah and Katherine, Kol, Enzo, Stefan, and T –"

"Stefan?" Klaus interrupted, his voice oddly calm. "Stefan?" He repeated in a louder voice, Caroline's eyes widening as she realized the Infected side of him had come back. "Of course the perfect Stefan Salvatore is going with you on the premise of saving me! Are you spreading your legs for him like I always knew you were! I'll kill him and you both!" He screamed.

"Klaus no!" Caroline shouted trying to get her Klaus to come back to her, but it was no use at that point. The trigger had been activated, bringing out the side of Klaus that he always had deep within him and magnifying it further through the Infection.

He lunged at Caroline through the bars, just centimeters away from grabbing her throat with the full intention of choking her to death, when an unexpected savior grabbed her from under her armpits and pulled her back harshly in the nick of time.

"Kol." Caroline whispered, looking up at her rescuer, who knelt down next to her and looked at her neck to make sure Klaus hadn't somehow scratched her.

Caroline was stunned, her mouth parted in shock as she realized he had just saved her from his own brother. She never should have gotten so close to begin with, she had been so wrapped up in trying to reach Klaus that she hadn't even heard Kol walk into the room.

"Are you alright?" Kol asked, surprising her with his genuine look of concern.

Klaus looked on as his younger brother pulled Caroline away into the safe zone just before he could carry out his plan of killing her. That sight brought the rational side of Klaus back to the surface as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown on him. He sucked in a large breath of air as if he himself had been choking, scrambling backwards into the cell in fear of what he had just done.

"Klaus?" Caroline asked from where she sat on the floor next to Kol, concerned despite what had just happened. "Klaus is that…is that you?"

"Get out of here." Klaus panted out, blinking rapidly and shaking his head. "Leave Caroline, leave before I hurt you."

Caroline shook her head, standing up despite Kol's protests and starting to walk forward again.

"No way Klaus, I'm fine, you weren't going to –"

"I was going to kill you!" He screamed in shame, backing up as far into the cell as he could and turning his head to the side to avoid looking at her. His bottom lip trembled and his face twitched of its own accord. "Now leave before he comes back."

"Caroline, go." Kol said firmly, grabbing her arm roughly and spinning her to face him. "You leave right now, do you understand me?"

"No Kol, I –"

"You'll never get the opportunity to save Niklaus if he kills you before we even depart, so _go_." He ordered, looking her right in the eye. "Now!"

Caroline jumped, sparing one last glance at Klaus who still had his head turned before darting out the door and leaving Kol in the room.

A silence fell upon the brothers as they listened to the sounds of Caroline running up the steps, the door directly above them opening and closing shut as she fled the building.

Klaus turned his head slowly, seeing Kol staring at him from the middle of the safe zone with a slightly dangerous expression.

"Long time no see brother." Kol said with not even a hint of fear in his voice. "I think it's time we had a little chat."

######

_"__Hey Alaric, me again why we're walking through the damn woods?" Damon asked in an annoyed tone, smacking a branch out of his way and glaring at their fearless leader's back._

_"__Because," Alaric started calmly, looking around him for any signs of danger, "People are dangerous when faced with the issue of survival. Staying in the woods means less chances of being killed not only by the zombies, but by humans as well."_

_"__How do you know so much about this?" Elena asked. "I mean you had guns in your apartment for when the bombs started last week, who even does that?"_

_Alaric chuckled sadly, looking over his shoulder at the group he was trying to help survive. _

_"__I guess you could say I watched a lot of zombie movies and took them a little too seriously." _

_Caroline stumbled over a root from the back of the group, cursing under her breath. It had been a week since the start of The Outbreak and she was surprised she was even still alive. Despite Mystic Falls being a heavily wooded area, she had very happily stuck to her nice home, nice car, and nice lifestyle her entire time there. So woods were not her forte._

_"__Easy there." Kol said in his thick accent, startling her as he showed up out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed her elbow gently to keep her from falling over the root. "Now is not the time to be getting injured wouldn't you say? You can't exactly run for your life with a broken ankle."_

_Caroline just looked up at Kol with wide eyes. After the bombs had started going off, one of her first thoughts was that Klaus and Elijah's brother Kol lived in Chicago. She may have been shell shocked at what was happening, but had somehow been able to think clearly enough that Kol and his girlfriend Bonnie may need their help as well. And she had been right, the couple were clearly at a loss at what was happening or what to do, so Alaric had suited them up and told them they had to either keep up or get lost. And keep up they did._

_Caroline pulled her elbow away from Kol's grasp with a rude expression which was very unlike her. He just smirked and held his hands up innocently._

_"__Relax, darling. I was just trying to be a gentleman."_

_Caroline said nothing, annoyed with his smug attitude. Klaus and Elijah had told her about Kol's snarky personality many times, but their words had certainly not prepared her for the real thing._

_"__You know," Kol began to say as Caroline started walking to catch up with the group again, "I have a feeling you don't like me."_

_"__Oh really?" Caroline asked sarcastically, smacking a mosquito away in annoyance. "What gave it away? My complete and total indifference to everything you say, or the fact that I've threatened to slap you about a hundred times so far?"_

_Kol laughed, not effected by her jab in the slightest._

_"__Wow." He said incredulously, smiling down at her with his ash smeared face, still handsome. "I just don't get it. For the past year all my siblings have been telling me about is how wonderful Klaus' girlfriend is. Wildly optimistic, kindhearted, all of that nonsense. And I finally get the honor of meeting the famous Caroline Forbes and what is she like? Cruel darling, just plain cruel."_

_Caroline's bottom lip began to tremble as Kol mentioned his family, making her think of Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah. He was like a mixture of all three of the Mikaelsons she was closest to. Cocky and temperamental like Klaus, gentlemanly by nature like Elijah, and stubborn as hell like Rebekah. Throw a naturally irritating personality into the mix and you truly have Kol Mikaelson._

_It didn't make things any easier that Kol resembled Elijah, which was especially difficult for Katherine. They had the same deep brown eyes and sharp jawline as well as their confident posture. _

_"__Why don't you go annoy your girlfriend?" Caroline spat at him, struggling to walk through the woods where it seemed that everyone else was doing just fine. _

_"__Oh Bonnie never gets annoyed by me." He obviously lied, smirking at Bonnie's backside who was walking about thirty feet ahead of them with Katherine._

_Caroline chuckled, shaking her head. "I have a feeling that's a bold faced lie."_

_"__Oh Caroline, you wound me." Kol said sarcastically, holding a hand over his chest and smirking at her. "And let's face it darling, lies are only truths that we haven't created yet."_

_Caroline froze, stopping abruptly in her tracks and looking up at Kol with wide eyes. He stopped as well, turning to her with a curious expression._

_"__What?" He asked in confusion._

_Caroline opened her mouth to tell him that she had heard those exact words from Klaus about a hundred times. It was one of his favorite phrases and hearing Kol say it made her miss the love of her life even more._

_Kol smiled then, chuckling as he realized what Caroline was thinking._

_"__Let me guess." Kol said, stepping closer to his brother's girlfriend. "Niklaus has said that to you before, has he? Yes well, that was one of his favorite sayings growing up. Honestly I had completely forgot about it until just now." He smiled at Caroline genuinely, which scared her for some reason. "Well I guess I was wrong Caroline. They were right about you bringing out the good in people and whatnot. Who would've thought?"_

_And then Kol spun on his heel and jogged to catch up with Bonnie, wrapping an arm around her waist and startling her._

_And Caroline just stood where she was in the middle of the woods, confused at the anomaly that was Kol Mikaelson._

######

"Get out, Kol." Klaus whispered in pain, refusing to look at his younger brother.

"What?" Kol asked in mock astonishment. "You want me to _leave_? Already? But brother, I came down here for the show. And granted, that was quite entertaining with Caroline just now. You know, all the screaming and trying to grab her throat and all. But I must say, I was quite heroic pulling her back like that don't you think?"

"Leave you immature little twit!" Klaus roared, finally turning his head to look at his brother, who just smirked. Klaus' eyes started to darken and his eye twitched as he started to lose control to the Other Klaus.

"So it's true then." Kol whispered in awe, annoying Klaus even further and thus making the switch to his Infected side more immediate. "There's two of you up there in that Infected little brain of yours. Tell me though, is it more like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder? Because I'm confused." He said nonchalantly, as if they were talking about the weather and not Klaus' murderous tendencies.

Other Klaus fully took over at that point, rolling his neck and popping the joints there as a roguish smirk overtook his face. Kol just looked on in curiosity though, not fearful in the slightest. Or at least, he wasn't _showing_ his fear.

"That depends." Other Klaus answered, narrowing his dark eyes at his brother.

"On what?"

"Which one of us is in charge." Other Klaus said simply with the most dangerous look Kol had ever seen in his entire life.

"And I'm assuming you're the more rotten side of my brother then, aren't you?" Kol asked.

"You would assume correctly."

"Fantastic!" Kol shouted, clapping his hands together and dragging the chair over to sit in. He looked at Other Klaus' confused expression with a smirk as he sat on the edge of his seat. "So tell me, Infected version of Niklaus," He said brightly, making Klaus roll his eyes, "How much do you want to kill me? And be honest, no need to hold back any gory details about your deep rooted hatred, just let me have it."

Other Klaus laughed haughtily at that, shaking his head contemptuously.

"Oh please, Kol. I've been wanting to kill you for a very long time. Believe me when I say that being Infected has nothing to do with it."

"Really?" Kol asked, leaning back in his chair and propping up one of his ankles on the opposite knee, cocking his head at Klaus as if he were being thoughtful. "And here I thought that we were the closest of brothers." He said with obvious sarcasm.

"Oh stop with the pretending." Klaus scowled, eyes darkening even further by the second. Kol always had the uncanny ability to push all of his buttons. "I know damn good and well that you're a glutton for punishment, Kol. Coming in here and pretending not to be afraid, it's _pathetic_. Provoking me so that I'll tell you all of the awful things about yourself that you're already aware of? You are a _child_."

Kol's smirk disappeared as the conversation took an unexpected turn, Klaus hitting his intentions right on the head.

"You want me to tell you everything I hate about you Kol?" Klaus asked menacingly, stalking toward the front of the cell. "Gladly." He said slowly, emphasizing each syllable. "You are weak, and immature, and sarcastic to the point where nobody even wants to be around you. You think Rebekah, Finn, Elijah, or myself were upset when you left for Chicago? Oh no, brother. We were _overjoyed_ to be rid of you and your irritating personality. You're like a little gnat that we can never swat away. Honestly, I know I'm the bastard son and all but I never understood why Mikael didn't beat you instead of me."

"You are scum." Kol snapped, standing up from the chair so fast that it fell over loudly behind him. "You are vile, and unappreciative, and you take _all_ of our family for granted! I would have done anything in the world for you – any of you! – but you and Elijah and Rebekah just cast me to the side every time. Finn as well, but he never really cared for any of the family except for mother anyway."

Kol was enraged, finally letting out all of the pent up frustration that had been inside of him since he was a child. His constant irritating and snarky attitude was just a defense mechanism for the pain he felt inside of not ever being truly accepted in his own family.

"What was it that you and Rebekah and Elijah always used to say to each other?" Kol asked rhetorically. "Oh yes I remember now, 'always and forever.' Well that never applied to me now did it? I was just the annoying younger sibling that you cast to the side! The day I left New York you asked me why I was leaving and I didn't answer you then because I was too ashamed to tell the truth!" Kol all but roared, shaking in anger. "The truth is that I left because I _hated_ you three! Hated you for never accepting me as I was, hated you for always talking down to me, _hated_ you for treating me like a nuisance instead of your brother!"

In Kol's rage, he didn't even notice that Klaus' stature had become more slouched, his eyes no longer dark as the pain of hearing his brother's words pushed his Infected state to the backburner.

"I hate you Niklaus." Kol said bluntly, eyes burning with fury. "But I am going to go to New York with Caroline and the others because unlike you, I don't cast aside my family or hurt them no matter how terribly they treat me. Because I may not always act like it, but you all are _everything_ to me." He said firmly, lips pursed in a thin line. "I will save you from this Infection if it's the last thing I do so that I can tell you all of this to your true face." He stated, not realizing that he was in fact doing just that. "I will save you so that I can have my awful, cruel, punishing, _evil_ brother back without having to blame it on the Infection."

Tears were welling up in Klaus' eyes but Kol didn't even notice.

"And when you're cured? Well we'll go right back to what we used to be." He continued. "Hating each other, each of us ignoring the other's very existence. You and Rebekah and Elijah will be thick as thieves once again, you can live happily ever after with Caroline, and me?" He held his hands out and laughed sadly, the sound effecting Klaus more than it should have. "Well I'll just go back to being the Mikaelson that nobody gives a damn about."

And with that, Kol spun on his heel and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him in a fit of fury and hurt.

Klaus gasped when Kol was gone, sinking to the ground in actual physical pain at what his brother had just told him with the most brutal honesty he had ever received.

"Well, well, well." Other Klaus chuckled maliciously from the opposite side of the cell, making Klaus squint his eyes so that his tears ran out the side. "We're really a piece of shit aren't we?"

######

**A/N: Well then. That was probably the most painful chapter ever for me, which is why it took me so long to upload it. Please read and review and tell me how sad you are so we can be sad together :( xoxo**


	15. Chapter 15 - Laughter to Tears

**Chapter 15 – Laughter to Tears**

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update guys, I am in University so you'll have to be patient with me when I get a heavy workload :( but I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! I made it a bit longer to make up for the lack of a quick update, and it's got some nice and painful Mikaelson family feels in it. Specifically Klaus and Rebekah. Hope you guys like it, make sure to review please!**

######

_Caroline cleared her throat for what felt like the hundredth time and took yet another sip of her drink, avoiding eye contact with the girl across from her._

_Rebekah rolled her eyes and leaned back in her own seat, crossing her arms and sighing dramatically. The two had been sitting at their table in Donovan's for about fifteen minutes now and hardly any words had been exchanged. To say it was awkward was the understatement of the century._

_"__So." Caroline finally said in a fake bright voice, making Rebekah look up at her curiously. "This weather, right? You'd think it would be warmer by now since it is almost April, but New York is always just so –"_

_"__Caroline." Rebekah interrupted the poor girl. "Please, just stop. I don't want to talk about the weather and I know you don't either. I am perfectly alright with just sitting here in silence to appease my brother."_

_"__Yeah well I'm not." Caroline said immediately, folding her arms on top of the table and leaning forward. "It means a lot to Klaus that you and I are friends, or at least not hostile towards each other."_

_"__I don't have any hostility towards you." Rebekah said much too quickly._

_Caroline narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend's sister in accusation._

_"__Okay so maybe I have some hostility towards you." Rebekah finally shrugged. "But I mean can you blame me Caroline? I finally meet an amazing guy like Matt only for his ex-girlfriend to start dating my big brother!" _

_"__Oh geez, sorry for intruding on your territory." Caroline said sarcastically. "I didn't realize it was wrong for me to date your brother – who came on to me first I might add – when you were already dating my ex who dumped me for you!"_

_"__Oh is that jealousy I detect Caroline?" Rebekah asked._

_"__What? No!" Caroline shouted. "Trust me, I have absolutely no feelings for Matt –"_

_"__So something is wrong with Matt then?" Rebekah spat. _

_"__Are you freaking kidding me?" Caroline asked incredulously, her blonde hair whipping around her shoulders. "No nothing is wrong with Matt, and no I don't have any feelings for him because I'm like, crazy for your brother! What the hell is wrong with you?"_

_Rebekah huffed and turned her head to look at the bar where Matt was working, feeling Caroline's wary eyes on her. _

_"__Alright I'm sorry." She finally sighed, looking back at Caroline. "That was ridiculous of me, I apologize. It's just that…it isn't fair okay? I came to the City and met a guy like Matt, the only person who looks at me like I'm worth anything other than my family, and then I find out he's still friends with his ex-girlfriend who is you. And I mean look at you, you're gorgeous, and fun, and not nearly as insecure as I am. And then you start to date the brother I'm closest to and he starts to put your needs above mine – as he should – but it's just…it's frustrating!"_

_Caroline laughed sadly and shook her head. _

_"__Rebekah trust me, I might come across as confident and entertaining all the time, but it's definitely an act. I'm just as insecure if not more insecure than you, and you can ask Klaus that. You don't ever have to feel threatened by me."_

_Rebekah eyed the blonde across from her warily, not knowing if she should believe her or not._

_"__And also," Caroline continued, "You are absolutely nuts if you think Klaus puts my needs above yours. You're his family, Rebekah. You and Elijah are like, his whole world. He'd drop me for you guys in a heartbeat."_

_Rebekah relaxed at that, looking down at her lap and chuckling._

_"__Yes I suppose that is true." She finally said, looking back up across the table. "Niklaus' loyalty has been engrained in him since we were children." She paused for a moment, biting her lip and choosing her next words carefully. "But I will admit, you have certainly wormed your way into my brother's heart in a way I've never seen before. It's quite admirable."_

_Caroline's eyes widened, her mouth parting a bit in shock that Rebekah had said something even remotely nice about her._

_"__Well I-I mean we've only just started dating –" Caroline stammered out, heat flooding her cheeks._

_"__Caroline relax." Rebekah laughed. "I'm not over here saying I want to be the maid-of-honor at your wedding or anything like that. I'm just saying that Niklaus truly cares for you."_

_Caroline smiled bashfully._

_"__Yeah well I care for him too." She finally said. "A lot actually. Maybe even too much."_

_Rebekah laughed, which made Caroline beam because she could tell it was a real, genuine laugh._

_"__Well coming from someone who has loved far too much far too many times," Rebekah began, "It can be a slippery slope. But seeing you and Nik, no matter how much it pains me to say this…" She paused dramatically, "It's like seeing the dark meet the light."_

_And as if right on cue, both girls looked up as the bell above front door rang, Elijah and Klaus both walking in and laughing about something. Klaus' eyes immediately drifted over to where his two favorite girls were sitting and he smiled mischievously upon seeing them both. When he made eye contact with Caroline though he winked before heading over to the bar with his brother._

_Rebekah laughed as Caroline's face turned bright red._

_"__Okay so," Caroline finally said, "Can we call a truce? No more being catty towards each other or talking behind each other's backs?"_

_Rebekah pursed her lips together in thought for a few moments before finally rolling her eyes and sighing._

_"__Yes, alright." She conceded. "No more pettiness."_

_"__Great!" Caroline beamed. "So..." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I'll tell you some secrets about Matt if you tell me some about Klaus."_

_The two girls shared stories and laughed much too loudly for the rest of the night, their differences long behind them._

_Matt and Klaus finally had to separate the two after Caroline spit out her drink upon hearing about the misadventure of Klaus and Kol going skinny dipping. He had to hear about that from her for the next two weeks. And even though he pretended to be annoyed, nothing made Klaus Mikaelson happier than seeing his two favorite girls becoming friends._

######

Caroline was breathing harder than ever before, her legs pumping behind her with a speed she didn't even know was possible. Mason was screaming at her to go faster and she gritted her teeth to push even harder and make it to where he was standing before Tyler – her opponent – did.

"Faster, faster!" Mason shouted from where he stood by the clinic building. "C'mon Forbes, you can do better than that!"

Every cell in Caroline's body was screaming for relief and just as she made it to the makeshift finish line with Tyler barely a foot in front of her, she came to a screeching halt and leaned against the building where the race started, her legs giving out so that she sank to the ground.

"Get up Forbes." Mason said after barely giving her a whole minute to catch her breath. "You're gonna go again until you can beat Tyler."

"I…can't." Caroline breathed out, her eyes fluttering shut in exhaustion. She could hear Tyler in a similar condition a few feet away from her.

"You can't?" Mason asked condescendingly as he knelt down in front of her. Caroline's eyes fluttered open weakly. "You _can't_?" He repeated. "Yeah well what are you going to do when you can't run anymore and there's twenty Infected on your ass?"

"Mason back off." Tyler breathed out, bracing himself against the wall as he confronted his uncle. "We've run the circuit three times today and she's kept up with me every time. Give her a break."

"I won't give her a break!" Mason retorted. "I won't give any of you a break because in four days you guys are leaving these walls and going into a death trap!"

The two were silent, Caroline looking up at Tyler with a weary expression. The circuit that they had been running three to five times a day every day since the 'Suicide Squad' as Enzo had so aptly named it had been formed was about a mile long. And a mile wasn't difficult at all for Caroline nor Tyler except that Mason expected them to _sprint_ it. It carried them from the clinic building at the backside of Whitmore, halfway around the perimeter of the community, past the well, and then back to the clinic.

And whenever Tyler and Caroline weren't running it, Enzo and Kol were. Or Katherine and Elijah, or Stefan and Lexi. Mason had given each of the Suicide Squad a partner that he felt would push them the most in their training for the journey to New York. And it hadn't taken them all long to realize that Mason's training was the equivalent to _hell_.

"It's fine, Tyler." Caroline said, taking a deep breath as she pushed herself back up to a standing position, sweat pouring down her face. "Mason's right. The Infected don't give us breaks, so he shouldn't either. Let's go again."

And so Caroline pushed herself harder on that fourth circuit run than she had any of the others, even going so far as to lap Kol and Enzo, who had left the start of the circuit about twenty seconds before she and Tyler had ended there. She was quite proud of herself when she beat Tyler by thirty feet, even though she was sure he let her win just to get Mason off her back.

It was another hour later before Mason finally let them go. He had them each do two hundred sit ups and one hundred pushups, followed by fifteen minutes of hand-to-hand combat. Needless to say, Caroline was exhausted beyond belief when they were done.

"Hey, you okay?" Tyler asked as he walked her back to her room, the afternoon sun bearing down on them even though the October air was brisk. "I know Mason was pretty rough on you back there."

Caroline shrugged. "It's fine. I'd rather he be tough on us now so that we can actually come back and thank him for it after we get the cure."

"What about everything else?" The dark haired boy continued, making Caroline raise her eyebrows at him. "You know, with Klaus. I heard he kind of flipped on you the other day."

Caroline smiled weakly, and Tyler could tell it was forced but he didn't comment on it.

"Klaus can't help it." She finally said after a few moments, pausing as a group of kids ran past the two laughing. "The Infection it just…it affects him differently than Maggie and Aaron. He's either hostile or acting like his old self and he can switch between the two in an instant."

Tyler nodded as if he understood which irked Caroline. He could sympathize, sure. But he didn't have a loved one in that position like Caroline did so he couldn't truly understand.

"Well I'm sorry." He said genuinely. "If I had to guess you're probably stressed out to the max with this whole Klaus thing and his sister being pregnant and Mason and –"

"Yeah." Caroline cute him off brusquely, not wanting to hear any more about how screwed up her life was at that moment. "Yeah it's pretty stressful but we just have to deal with it, right?"

Tyler smiled at her, showing off his perfect white teeth.

"Right." He said. "And it's all going to be okay once we get the cure and get back here."

It didn't escape Caroline that Tyler didn't sound like he even believed himself.

Once they reached the building with Caroline's room (in a different building than before thankfully, Katherine and Elijah were getting a bit out of control with their shared room), he bid her goodnight and left to his own home. Caroline went in and washed up the best she could in those conditions, sighing as the tension left her body. She was sore as hell and her head was pounding, but her heart was what hurt the most, still reeling from her encounter with Klaus three nights ago.

He had actually tried to kill her. The love of her life, the man she had given everything to, had actually been planning to kill her. And even though Caroline knew that Klaus' actions were beyond his control, it didn't make it hurt any less. In fact, it made the knowledge hurt even more because she knew that he was angry at himself for not being able to control his actions towards her most of all.

She had been dying to know what had transpired between Klaus and Kol after she had left the cell, but the youngest Mikaelson brother had been everything but forthcoming.

And since that night, not only Enzo, but now everyone was adamant about Caroline staying away from Klaus. Kol must have told them what Klaus had tried to do, which was why Stefan, Enzo, Elijah, and Katherine were especially persistent in keeping her away from the lab. They were assuring her that she could see him again before they left for New York, but until then there was no way she was going to see him before their departure.

As Caroline changed clothes and made her way outside to where everyone was going to eat dinner together (oatmeal in the afternoon was a special at Whitmore), she told herself that it was okay. That as soon as they made it Wes' lab and got the cure and made it back that she would have Klaus back and everything would go back to normal. Well, as normal as they could be during the apocalypse.

"Caroline!" Elena called out as the blonde approached the group.

Caroline mustered a smile and a wave, going over to her friends. Elena had been especially clingy ever since the New York trip had been announced, fearing that she would never see her sister or friends again.

"Well look who it is." Damon smirked as Caroline sat across from him at the wooden table. "Haven't seen you in a while Blondie. Figured you would be with your new bestie Lockwood."

Caroline rolled her eyes, nodding to Stefan and Lexi as they sat down as well, looking as tired as she did.

"Shutup Damon." She sighed. "Tyler is my training partner courtesy of his uncle Mason. We're learning how to not die together, that doesn't make us friends."

"I'm pretty sure that Mason is the devil." Lexi mumbled as she leaned her cheek against Stefan's shoulder, making her face squish up comically. "Literally. As in the actual devil from the very pits of hell."

"That's funny, didn't you say that about me one time?" Damon asked sarcastically, making everyone snicker.

"Sure did." Lexi said casually, not even looking up. "And lucky for you, Mason took your spot."

Stefan laughed, wrapping his arm around Lexi's waist affectionately. That had been another development lately – 'Sexi' as Enzo had dubbed it. According to Elijah, the two had never been romantic towards each other over the duration of The Outbreak, Stefan being scared to admit his feelings after Lexi had literally watched her boyfriend Lee get killed by a bomb in New York. But since getting to Whitmore they had very touchy-feely and tender towards one another. Forehead kisses, hand grazing, lingering looks, that kind of thing. And all everyone could think was 'it's about damn time.'

"Wait are we talking about Mason?" Katherine asked as she and Elijah walked up. "Because if so, then I have plenty to say about that little –"

"Katherine." Elena cut her twin off with a stern look. "Be nice. He's trying to keep you alive."

Katherine rolled her eyes as Elijah smiled and sat down next to her, taking his wife's hand.

"Your sister's right, Katerina." He said. "I personally don't mind Mason's tactics at all."

Katherine smirked, leaning into Elijah's chest. "You're just saying that because you get to watch me run in those short shorts."

"Please, Katherine, don't make anyone sick before we even eat." Kol snarked with a mischievous grin as he showed up quite suddenly with Bonnie.

Katherine rolled her eyes dramatically, pretending not to see Elijah's smile as his wife and his brother teased each other. Kol had made it his personal mission to be as annoying to Katherine as possible, which brought more joy to her husband than it probably should have.

"Kol, how nice to see you." Katherine muttered, leaning over Elijah to look at him and Bonnie. "And Bon-Bon, how _actually_ nice to see you."

Kol scowled as Bonnie laughed, waving to Katherine and saying hello.

"Well where the hell is everyone else?" Damon suddenly asked. "Enzo, Blondie Number Two, and Quarterback?"

"Enzo is getting the food, and Matt and Bekah are on their way." Bonnie answered, making Damon's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. She hardly ever spoke to him. "Rebekah was getting some herbs to help with morning sickness."

"Urgh." Kol said with a shudder. "I still can't get over that my sister is pregnant."

"Neither can I." Elijah said honestly. "But I believe that Rebekah will make a great mother. When she loves, she loves with her whole heart and a child will only increase that sentiment."

Caroline didn't miss the way that Katherine eyed Elijah as he spoke about Rebekah's unborn child. She couldn't help but wonder if, after this was all over and if they actually survive the journey to New York and back, would Elijah and Katherine want to start a family of their own?

Kol started to say something else about Rebekah and Matt having sex in the woods on Elijah's watch, when Enzo walked up with a box holding several bowls of oatmeal.

"Dinner has arrived, ladies and gentlemen." He said with his typical smirk. But just as he started passing out the food, Caroline stood up. "Wait what is this?" Enzo asked her, stopping her in her tracks. "I arrive and you dart off? We have to at least keep up appearances, Caroline."

Everyone laughed as Caroline rolled her eyes. It was becoming more and more apparent that Enzo was constantly trying to take her mind off of Klaus by teasing her and flirting and whatnot. It was all completely harmless and truth be told, she appreciated it. It made her feel almost normal.

"Oh please Enzo, I'll be right back. Think you can handle a few minutes without me?" She quipped back at him, narrowing her eyes.

"I'll be counting down the seconds love." He said in a playfully sarcastic tone as she gave him the finger and walked away.

She passed some families and workers who all smiled at her on her way to where Bonnie worked in the herbal garden during the day with some of the older ladies who had made it to Whitmore. And no matter how hard she tried, Caroline couldn't find it in her to give those people genuine smiles back.

She approached the garden quietly, not wanting to disturb any of the people working. She saw Rebekah and Matt a few feet away, their backs to her as one of the women that tended the garden gave her some green leaves.

"And you can just grind these up and mix them in with your food throughout the day and that should help with that morning sickness right away." The lady was telling them, Matt's shoulders obviously tensed from what Caroline could see.

"Thank you so very much." Rebekah gushed, taking the herbs.

The couple turned then and started walking away, Matt whispering something to Rebekah just as they caught sight of Caroline.

"Caroline." Matt said with a smile, his face lighting up at the sight of his friend.

"Hey Matt." She smiled back, coming to a stop in front of them. "Hey Rebekah, do you think we could um, talk? Just for a little bit?"

"Oh um, sure." Rebekah stammered out, glancing up at Matt briefly. "I'll come meet you at dinner in a few?"

"Yeah that's fine." Matt smiled weakly at her, kissing her forehead for a fleeting second before smiling at Caroline once more and walking to where the others were.

"So what is it?" Rebekah asked as she and Caroline began to walk aimlessly. "Any more news about Klaus? Did Wes give you any tips about –"

"Rebekah." Caroline cut her off. "I'm not here to talk about Klaus or the cure or the Infection or any of that." She said seriously. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."

"Whatever for?"

"For being a jerk." Caroline said honestly, looking down at the ground shamefully. "You tried to tell me that you were pregnant and I just blew you off for my own problems. And I haven't even tried to talk to you the past three days when you're going through the same things I am with the prospect of a baby on top of it all." Rebekah was silent, crossing her arms as tears started to well up in her eyes. "So how are you doing? And be honest."

Rebekah laughed sadly, shaking her head.

"I'm…" She trailed off, having to take a few deep breaths to keep her composure. "I'm absolutely awful, Caroline. I'm bloody terrified. Nik is in that basement alone and scared and angry while everyone else up here is acting like all is right with the world. You and everyone else are leaving to go find a cure while I sit here helpless. And not to mention Matt can hardly even look at me ever since I told him the news!"

Rebekah was borderline hysterical as the tears started to flow freely for the first time since she had announced her pregnancy, and Caroline immediately came to a stop and turned to her friend, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her urgently. Rebekah returned the embrace without hesitation, crying into Caroline's shoulder in abandon.

"I just don't…know what to do Caroline." She stammered out, her whole body shaking. "Matt doesn't want this baby and –"

"Hey, hey, woah hold up." Caroline interrupted, pulling back and holding Rebekah at arm's length. "Who said Matt doesn't want this baby? Did he say that? Because I don't care if we live in Peaceful Town, I'll kick his ass if you ask me to."

Rebekah laughed through her tears, shaking her head.

"No, no, he didn't say that." She choked out. "But I can tell. He doesn't look at me the way he used to, he's so…upset about having a baby right now."

"What do you mean right now?"

"I mean in the bloody apocalypse Caroline!" Rebekah shouted. "There are zombies right outside these walls and we could die at any given moment and we're bringing a _child_ into this!"

"Yes, you are." Caroline said quickly and firmly. "And you want to know what? You're going to be an amazing parent. Like, freaking awesome." Rebekah laughed disbelievingly. "No, no, I'm serious. If anyone could be a mom and dad right now it's you two."

"Thank you Caroline." Rebekah breathed out, raising a hand to try and tame her hair and wipe her eyes. "I guess we don't really have a choice, do we?"

"No, not really." Caroline laughed. "And just give it time, Matt will come around. He's probably just as nervous as you are."

"Oh believe me, he is." Rebekah said. "I don't think I've ever seen him so terrified than when we talked about it the other night. But you're completely right, I just need to give it time."

"Of course I'm right." Caroline said with a smile. "And by the way, when the _hell_ did you two get engaged?" She asked incredulously.

That made Rebekah laugh again, a hard laugh too. The girls started to walk again arm-in-arm as Rebekah regaled Caroline with the story of how Matt proposed to her two months after The Outbreak with a bent paperclip while they were hiding from Infected in an abandoned factory. It almost felt like old times.

Almost.

"So Klaus is still…" Rebekah trailed off as the two girls approached Wes' lab building.

"Yeah." Caroline said shortly. "He's still in there and angry at all of us."

Rebekah took in a deep, shaky breath.

"He doesn't know. He doesn't know that I'm pregnant. My own brother that I was the closest to has no idea that I'm carrying a child."

Caroline was silent as the weight of Rebekah's words came over them both. Klaus had told Caroline a hundred times that no matter how much he didn't want Rebekah to ever get married and have children, he would love to be an uncle one day. Whether it be Rebekah, Elijah, Kol, or Finn's kids one day. Granted, Finn did have a child with Sage, but Klaus had only seen pictures since they had officially moved back to England. And Klaus had shown absolutely everyone the pictures of his new niece that he was thrilled to meet come Christmastime. Unfortunately, he never had that opportunity.

"He should know." Rebekah continued. "He deserves to know, no matter if he's Infected or not."

Caroline was silent, eyeing the building with a plan formulating in her mind.

"Come on." She finally said, grabbing Rebekah by the wrist and pulling her towards the lab.

"Wait what are you doing?" Rebekah asked incredulously. "The boys said –"

"I don't _care_ what the boys said." Caroline cut her off. "Us girls have got to stick together, and you deserve to talk to your brother. So come on."

######

_"__Why are you and Rebekah so close?" Caroline suddenly asked, making Klaus look down at the top of her head where she was sitting in between his legs on the grass in Central Park watching Elijah try (and fail) to teach Katherine how to properly throw a Frisbee. _

_"__What?" Klaus asked in surprise. "What on earth made you think to ask that question?"_

_Caroline shrugged, chuckling as Katherine almost hit a young boy on a bike with the flying disk._

_"__I don't know. I was just thinking about how you and Elijah are really tight, but Rebekah looks at you like you're Superman or something."_

_Klaus smiled meekly even though Caroline couldn't see him, twirling a piece of her hair in his fingers._

_"__When Rebekah and I were children," he began, "Our father was a very…unpleasant person."_

_He could feel Caroline's body tense against his chest and he knew she was probably guessing to what he meant. They had only been dating two months at this point and she had once asked where all of his scars had come from only for him to vaguely answer that he had gotten them as a younger man and not to worry over them. He knew that Caroline was a smart girl and that she had most likely put together that his father had been abusive even though he had never outright said it._

_"__Mikael tended to have more of a vendetta against me than any of my other siblings." Klaus continued after a moment. "He favored Rebekah the most, so she made a point to try and defend me whenever I was at the brunt of his metaphorical sword."_

_"__Why?"_

_"__Why what, love?" He asked, smoothing out her hair when she tilted her head up to look at him._

_"__Why did your father have such a vendetta against you?" She asked, the picture of innocence. "I don't understand how a father can have a least favorite child, it doesn't make any sense."_

_Klaus sighed, looking back up at his brother and Katherine interact, joy on their faces. It made him smile to see his brother so happy. _

_"__Mikael wasn't my real father." Klaus finally admitted, making Caroline's eyes widen and her mouth part in shock. "When I was seven years old I had a bad fall while climbing a tree outside of our home, and had to have a blood transfusion. When he wasn't a match, his suspicions of my true parentage were confirmed."_

_"__Your mom had an affair?" Caroline asked in astonishment. _

_Klaus nodded. "Indeed she did. From what little I know, my biological father was an artist she met briefly while on a business trip. I was the result and became Mikael's greatest shame."_

_They were silent then, Caroline lacing her fingers through his and holding his hand tightly as they looked about at everyone enjoying the nice spring day in Central Park. Elijah and Katherine had given up playing Frisbee and were now standing quite close to one another and it looked as though Katherine was, well, being Katherine._

_"__But back to your original question," Klaus finally spoke after clearing his throat, "Bekah was always the most sensitive of all us Mikaelsons, and it destroyed her poor fragile emotions when Mikael took his rage out on me. And when Rebekah sees an injustice, she does everything in her power to stop it."_

_"__She's a good sister." _

_"__The best." Klaus smiled. "What the rest of us Mikaelsons lack in the ability to love others, Bekah makes up for tenfold. Her kindheartedness is oftentimes her downfall, which is why I have to look out for her so. She thinks I'm overbearing, but it's only because I have to protect her."_

_"__The way she protected you." Caroline finished his unspoken thought in a soft voice._

_"__The way she protected me." Klaus confirmed with a small smile, squeezing Caroline's hand yet again._

######

"I can't do this Caroline." Rebekah said in a rushed voice, trying to turn around only for Caroline to grab her by the shoulders.

"Yes, you can Rebekah." She said sternly. "Klaus' personality is split in two right now, and I'm hoping you can get through to his good side the way I can. Just make sure you stand away from the bars okay?"

Rebekah chuckled though she was full of fear.

"Oh trust me I won't be getting near him. Not just for my sake but for…" She trailed off, looking down at her stomach.

Caroline smiled, grabbing Rebekah's hand.

"You're going to be just fine." She assured her friend. "Just talk to him the way you would always talk to your brother. And if he flips out, I'll be right out here and you can just knock on the door, okay?"

"Okay."

"Alright, now take a deep breath, put on your bravest face, and go talk to your brother."

With that being said, Caroline spun Rebekah around and literally shoved her towards the door leading to Klaus' cell. Granted, she wanted to be the one seeing him at that moment, but Caroline had had a sort of an epiphany while talking to Rebekah: Klaus was Rebekah's protector, the person who looked out for her above all else. Elijah too of course, but Klaus more so. And with Klaus Infected, the job had to fall to someone. And Klaus would want her to be the one doing it, so she was. Was it stressful? Of course. But it was for Klaus – _her_ Klaus, so it was worth it.

Rebekah took a deep breath and entered the cell slowly, the large door creaking in the process. Just before she stepped in she looked behind her and gave Caroline a scared glance, only to get a smile and a thumbs up in return.

"Well come on in then, don't be shy."

Rebekah jumped when she heard Klaus' voice, turning back to the cell and stepping all the way inside, letting the door close behind her.

It took every ounce of Rebekah's strength not to gasp upon seeing Klaus' condition. She hadn't seen him since he first woke up after being administered the antidote, so she wasn't prepared at all for what she saw.

Her brother looked awful. His face was gaunt, there were scratch marks all up and down his arms, blood and dirt smeared on his face, his clothes torn from his own doing, his knuckles bloodied from punching the wall. But the worst part was his eyes. The blue eyes that had stared into her own with an assurance that everything would be okay a hundred plus times were now so dark she couldn't recognize them. Not only were there dark rings around them, the pupils themselves were dilated and the irises were the darkest shade of blue she had ever seen – almost black themselves.

"Rebekah." Klaus said with an evil grin, standing up from the cot and walking towards the cell bars. Rebekah didn't move from her place right by the door. "How lovely to see you, sister. I've missed you terribly."

Rebekah gulped visibly, which made Klaus smirk.

"Hello Niklaus." She said, mustering a smile for a very brief second. "I'm…I'm sorry I haven't been to see you."

"Oh sister." Klaus cocked his head to the side mockingly. "There's no need to apologize. I mean after all, I'm just locked up in this tiny cell with no entertainment all day. Nothing to do except fester in my rage." His voice got darker and darker as he spoke, his eyes narrowing at his sister in fury.

Rebekah chuckled despite the precarious situation she was in.

"You sound like Kol." She said nostalgically, looking down at her feet and crossing her arms. "Remember? He used to always say it was our job to entertain him."

Klaus blinked a few times, standing up to his full height instead of leaning against the bars and glaring at Rebekah. The rings around his eyes started to fade away and his more rational self was brought to the surface.

"Rebekah." He breathed out, smiling at his sister. "I'm sorry, that wasn't…me." He shook his head and continued to try and blink away the fog.

"It's alright." Rebekah said honestly, surprising herself. "They told me about how you can control it sometimes. I'm proud of you."

Klaus chuckled and shook his head, wrapping his hands around the bars.

"It's rare." He replied, trying to even out his breathing. "I can't do it often. He's very…persistent." He grumbled.

Rebekah laughed, sitting down in the chair across from the cell and looking up at her big brother with the same proud expression she had been giving him ever since they were children.

"Well it makes sense." She grinned. "You're the most persistent person on the planet, Nik. I mean look at Caroline, that's how you two got together."

Klaus chuckled too, ignoring Other Klaus who was saying vile things in the corner that he would never repeat while in his right mind.

"So are you here to tell me you're going to find the cure?" Klaus finally asked, confronting the elephant in the room while he was still able to.

It didn't escape Klaus nor Other Klaus that Rebekah visibly tensed at the mention of the upcoming trip his loved ones were taking. But the tension didn't come from fear of him, but something else. Something else that he couldn't place.

"Um, no." Rebekah said as she shifted in her seat, avoiding eye contact with him. "No, I'm not going on the trip."

"Oh." Klaus said, willing Other Klaus to retreat back to the corner as he started to come closer to his sister. "That's good, none of you should be going anyways."

"It's not that I don't want to." Rebekah said quickly, afraid she would chicken out if she didn't just get it over with. "It's that I…I can't."

Klaus smirked, the fog creeping back in slowly.

"Let me guess, Elijah won't let you?" He asked. "Ah 'Lijah, always so noble and loyal to a fault. I presume your stubbornness led to an argument of epic proportions? I hate I missed it, I'm sure you –"

"I'm pregnant." Rebekah spat out suddenly, making Klaus freeze and his eyes go wide.

It was dead silent in the cell room, Rebekah afraid to even breathe. Well, it was quiet to her. In Klaus' mind though, his Other self was slowly heating to a boiling point, the rage literally feeling as if it were crawling up his throat.

"You're…what?" Klaus choked out. "But…but that's impossible, you can't be…"

"I am, Nik." Rebekah said, her hands shaking slightly as she watched Klaus' demeanor change. "Matt and I, we're…we're having a baby."

Klaus' eyes were wider than saucers, and his hands were gripping the cell bars so tightly his knuckles were turning white. He wasn't saying anything though.

"I…I found out for sure a few days ago." Rebekah continued, not knowing what else to do. She wished Caroline were in the room with her right then. "But I guessed while we were still travelling here. I wanted to tell you Nik, I swear I did, but I was just so…so afraid, and I didn't want to tell anyone until I was positive and I knew it would make you and Matt and everyone else more worried for me and I didn't –"

"How could you?"

Rebekah froze. Klaus had whispered so softly that she almost hadn't heard him as he cut off her rambling self.

"How could I…what?" She asked warily, scared of his calm tone despite his dark eyes.

Klaus looked at Rebekah's face and chuckled sadly, shaking his head in complete and total disbelief.

"How could you let this happen?" He asked, cocking his head to the side. "Rebekah do you have any idea what you've done?" The corner of his mouth turned up in an evil smirk. "You daft girl. You're bringing a child into this world. This world Bekah, with monsters at every turn. Hell, you're even standing in front of one right now. And you're going to bring the picture of innocence, a _child_, into all of this? Do you really think any motherly nature you may or may not possess will somehow protect a _baby_?"

Klaus' voice was rising by the second and Rebekah's eyes widened in fear.

"You bloody _idiot_!" Klaus screamed. "I swear Bekah, you wouldn't know common sense if it hit you in the face! All the work that Elijah and I put into teaching you how to live your life right went right down the damn drain! You're useless, Rebekah, you're a lost cause! And now you're going to ruin another life! Couldn't you have just kept your legs closed to that idiot quarterback for five seconds?!"

"Shutup!" Rebekah yelled, tears falling from her eyes and she stood from the chair quickly. "You shutup Nik, don't you dare talk to me that way!"

"I'll talk to you any way I want!" Klaus roared as his eyes started turning a reddish color. "You will ruin that baby's life you dumb, stupid whore!"

Other Klaus was in complete control now since Klaus' rational side was just as angry as he was. His little sister was pregnant? His innocent, little sister that was too loving and naïve for her own good? It pissed him off to no end and he couldn't quite figure out why.

"I am in love with Matt and he is in love with me and we are having a child and you can do nothing about it!" Rebekah screamed, her cheeks flushed. "You're just angry because your family is going to change! You're afraid that I'll have someone whose needs come before yours and you know what, Nik? It's going to happen, so Infected or not you can just get the bloody hell over it!"

Rebekah let out a heavy breath as she finished her rant, a silence descending upon brother and sister. Her expression said that she herself hadn't even expected those words to come out of her mouth. Rebekah loved Klaus more than life itself sometimes, and even though they fought like cats and dogs, she always made it a point to never hit him where it hurt most. He was always the one doing that.

Suddenly Klaus started to smirk. And that smirk turned into a grin, which then turned into a full on laugh. Rebekah started inching closer to the door as his laugh turned absolutely manic, the sound shooting a pang of pure terror to her heart.

"Oh Bekah!" Klaus shouted loudly in between his laughs. "I cannot _wait_ to see you fail. You will ruin this child like you ruin everything else. You think I'm the monster? Oh no, sister. You're the monster and now everyone else is going to see it as well!"

The manic laughter continued no matter how much Rebekah screamed at her brother to stop it, to leave her alone. He kept on laughing even when Caroline opened the door and grabbed Rebekah's arm and pulled her out of the cell forcefully despite her shouts of protest.

Nobody saw that the laughter turned into cries of pure pain and torment as the girls left the building, leaving Klaus alone to wallow in his misery of the lies he had just told the sister he loved with all his heart. No matter how Infected that heart may be.

######

**A/N: Reviewwwww my loves xoxo**


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